[Coral-List] new sponge climate record
Risk, Michael
riskmj at mcmaster.ca
Tue Feb 6 22:58:05 UTC 2024
Yes, an excellent (although ultimately depressing) paper by some very
competent people.
Some additional context here: for many years (centuries, even)
geologists have been studying a mysterious group of critters called
stromatoporoids. They are worldwide in their distribution, and confined
(we thought!) to the Paleozoic. In some areas, especially in the
Devonian of Western Canada, they host significant reserves of
petroleum.
We were never sure what they were. Early workers thought they were
corals, or algae, or sponges-or, in one burst of brilliance, forams.
After a while we more or less settled on them being sponges, although
of a group unlike any we had seen. Until Judy Lang found and described
the ones living at some depths in caves off the north coast of Jamaica.
The paleontologists fell on this discovery with cries of
delight-finally, stromatoporoids had a home! Sponges after all.
They are not uncommon, in the Caribbean. I have collected them at
relatively shallow depths (10m) in caves on Grand Cayman. For a while,
I had a ginormous one in my collection-ginormous being a relative term.
It was about 15x10cm. At the time, neither the techniques nor the money
were available to work on it. Then the university decided to emphasize
other aspects, and took over my lab-that specimen now is somewhere in a
landfill.
Kudos to the authors. This is great work.
__________________________________________________________________
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 3:29 AM
To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] new sponge climate record
Caution: External email.
The sclerosponge quote comes from
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge
Cheers, Doug
On Mon, Feb 5, 2024 at 9:27PM Douglas Fenner
<douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Sea sponges keep climate records and the accounting is grim, study
shows
>
>
>
[2]https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/sea-sponges-keep-climat
e-records-and-the-accounting-is-grim-new-study-shows/ar-BB1hO8nw
>
> open-access
>
> Ocean warming and warning
>
> [3]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01921-z
>
> Not open-access
>
> 300 years of sclerosponge thermometry shows global warming has
exceeded
> 1.5 C
>
> [4]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01919-7
>
> open-access. The sponges were collected in Puerto Rico at a depth of
> 31-91 m, so mesophotic (probably coral reef). Sclerosponges have a
massive
> and hard calcium skeleton with a thin layer of living sponge tissue
on the
> surface. They are mostly at mesophotic depths in the Caribbean, in
lower
> light habitats if shallower. Not really common I would say. I'm
presuming
> that they add to their external skeleton slowly. Most are pretty
small,
> one species can be at least 10 cm diameter, others may be smaller. I
don't
> think I've ever seen one in the Indo-Pacific, though they are surely
here.
> My impression is not many species.
>
> Wikipedia says "
> Sclerosponges[edit
>
<[5]https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demosponge&action=edit&s
ection=2>
> ]
>
> Sclerosponges were first proposed as a class of sponges,
*Sclerospongiae*,
> in 1970 by Hartman and Goreau.[16]
> <[6]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge#cite_note-16> However,
it was
> later found by Vacelet that sclerosponges occur in different classes
of
> Porifera <[7]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porifera>.[17]
> <[8]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge#cite_note-17> That means
that
> sclerosponges are not a closely related (taxonomic
> <[9]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_(biology)>) group of
sponges and
> are considered to be a polyphyletic grouping and contained within the
> Demospongiae. Like bats <[10]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat> and
birds
> <[11]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird> that independently developed
the
> ability to fly, different sponges developed the ability to build a
> calcareous skeleton independently and at different times in Earth's
> history
<[12]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_Earth>.
> Fossil sclerosponges are already known from the Cambrian
> <[13]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian> period.[18]
> <[14]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge#cite_note-18>"
> For more articles on related subjects, see:
[15]https://www.nature.com/search
>
> Such as:
>
> Resistance to ocean acidification in coral reef taxa is not gained by
> acclimatization
>
> Coral resilience to ocean acidification and global warming through pH
> up-regulation
>
> A coralline alga gains tolerance to ocean acidification over multiple
> generations of exposure
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Coral Reef Consulting
> PO Box 997390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298 USA
>
> Costanza, R. 2023. To build a better world, stop chasing economic
growth.
> Nature 624: 519-521.
[16]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
>
> Fossil fuel air pollution kills 5 million people world-wide per year
>
>
[17]https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millio
ns-200000257.html
>
> World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
> [18]https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
>
> Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
>
>
[19]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petros
tates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
>
> "without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of
the
> century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening
hot
> climates" Will you be in that area???
>
>
[20]https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-prob
lem-123000792.html
>
> World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
> TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available. The
subsidies
> MUST end.
>
>
>
[21]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsi
dies-must-end/
>
>
_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[22]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge
2. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/sea-sponges-keep-climate-records-and-the-accounting-is-grim-new-study-shows/ar-BB1hO8nw
3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01921-z
4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01919-7
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demosponge&action=edit§ion=2
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge#cite_note-16
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porifera>.[17
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge#cite_note-17
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_(biology
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_Earth
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosponge#cite_note-18
15. https://www.nature.com/search
16. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
17. https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millions-200000257.html
18. https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
19. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
20. https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
21. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/
22. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
More information about the Coral-List
mailing list