ALT This is a picture of Figure 2 from the paper. The figure basically shows that when there is a Pycnopodia cue in the water, purple urchins eat less, especially at the beginning, but as time goes on, the differences in kelp consumed drops off as the urchins become accustomed to the cue. The caption is: FIGURE 2 (a) Hourly consumption of kelp by urchins that were exposed (light orange) and not exposed (dark purple) to a Pycnopodia cue across the 69-h experimental period. Regression lines show the best fit and 95% CI for each group. Differences in hourly feeding rate (dotted red box) are shown at (b) 27 h and (c) 33 h, the time at which feeding rates become indistinguishable between the two treatments. Error bars in panels b and c represent SE.

ALT This is a striking underwater image of local patch dynamics on the seafloor. In the center of the photo is a large Pycnopodia sunflower sea star, and surrounding it is a nearly perfect ring (halo) of empty white rock space, which is about the width of the seastar itself, and then outside of the halo are hundreds of purple sea urchins, with some red sea urchins mixed in. The urchins are packed so close to each other it is hard to see the sea floor. The image conveys how the predator Pycnopodia creates a landscape of fear for these urchins, which can sense the "smell" of their predator approaching. Photo was taken by Lynn Lee in Haida Gwaii, Canada, and used with permission.

ALT Another photo of empty space near a Pycnopodia sea star and the ring of purple sea urchins around it, fleeing from it's advance. This image is taken underwater at the level of the sea floor, so that the viewer can see the piles of hundreds of urchins in the background, a kelp forest fringe in the shallows, and the blue/grey Pycnopodia in the foreground. Photo is by Lynn Lee, taken in Haida Gwaii, Canada. Used with permission.

ALT This is snippet of one of the supplemental tables from our new paper on Pycnopodia. It shows the first 3 columns, with 24 rows of data, showing in the first column the name of each individual sea star, the second column is the date, and the 3rd is the location collected. I won't list all of the dates and collection locations here but you can get the data from the table in the paper supplemental data file if you wish. I will list the names because that is the LOL part that I want people who can's see the list to enjoy... the names are: Del, Pegasus, Mango, Lt. Cdr. Data, (Jadzia) Dax, Cpt. Jean Luc Picard, Cpt. Sisko, Anaximander, Drumstick, Nog, Charybdis, Scrimshaw, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Cylon, Maple, Skinner, Guinan, Igneous, Mindy, Cordyceps, Fermi, Luca, Spore, Titan.

ALT A photo mosaic of the 24 Pycnopodia sunflower sea stars used in the study. Each one has a slightly different color pattern and size, and even shape. Some have thick long arms and some have more spindely arms.

ALT Samantha and I are standing next to her poster which is in the background, both of us giving a thumbs up.

ALT The picture shows Aaron and J’mie standing next to his poster, and both of us are giving the thumbs up. We are wearing out masks!