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Nardao novaecaledonae is distributed throughout the shallow back reef and therefore is protected from high wave action and large predators (Boyer 2011). On reef systems such as the Great Barrier Reef, the biggest threat to the star will be caused by climate change and other anthropogenic influences.
This sea star thrives in under certain environmental conditions. Changes in temperature and salinity caused by the changing climate may cause a decrease in abundance and changes in the distributions of the population. It has also been reported that the sea stars can only tolerate small variations in nutrient levels. Therefore anthropogenic runoff and general pollution may also have a deleterious impact on this species.
Preferred environmental conditions:
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Temperature range (°C)
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26.692 - 28.500
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Nitrate (umol/L)
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0.090 - 0.923
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Salinity (PPS):
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33.966 - 35.037
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Oxygen (ml/l):
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4.379 - 4.685
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Phosphate (umol/l):
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0.122 - 0.197
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Silicate (umol/l):
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0.983 - 1.856
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(EoL 2011)
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