A novel, non-invasive and in vivo approach to determine morphometric data in starfish

Title data

Sigl, Robert ; Imhof, Hannes ; Settles, Marcus ; Laforsch, Christian:
A novel, non-invasive and in vivo approach to determine morphometric data in starfish.
In: Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. Vol. 449 (2013) . - pp. 1-9.
ISSN 0022-0981
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2013.08.002

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

Starfish (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) are present in most benthic ocean habitats and play an important ecological role as keystone species or by dominating through sheer individual numbers. In order to assess nutritional and reproductive states in ecological studies on asteroids, invasive techniques to calculate organ indices are conventionally used. We present a non-invasive method that enables imaging and morphometric measurements in starfish in vivo. We used a clinical 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to produce sectional images of three starfish species and employed these image stacks to generate 3D models of the pyloric ceca, gonads and the endoskeleton. In comparison to pre-clinical {MRI} scanners, that provide higher resolutions, clinical {MRI} is not limited to small objects, but allows the investigation of larger samples such as the starfish used in the present study. Volume data from MRI-based 3D reconstructions were compared to conventional invasive measurement techniques as well as high resolution {MRI} scans and were tested for inter-observer effects. Here we show that {MRI} is a suitable method for precise imaging and volumetric measurements in fixed and living marine specimens. Compared to other methods, it allows not only the production of time series data on single individuals as well as populations, but also non-destructive analyses of valuable specimens, such as museum material.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Keywords:	Acanthaster planci (Linnaeus 1758); Echinodermata; Gonad index; Magnetic resonance imaging; Non-invasive; Pyloric cecum index
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology I > Chair Animal Ecology I - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Laforsch Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology I
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	500 Science > 500 Natural sciences 500 Science > 570 Life sciences, biology 500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2015 09:16
Last Modified:	21 Jan 2022 09:08
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/20485