[Coral-List] New paper on competition for space by an excavating sponge from the Caribbean

Angela Marulanda ammarulandag24 at gmail.com
Sun Feb 19 09:48:26 EST 2017


Greetings Coral listers.

Let me call your attention regarding a new paper on the encrusting and
excavating sponge Cliona tenuis:

Marulanda-Gómez, L, M. López-Victoria y S. Zea. 2017. Current status of
coral takeover by an encrusting excavating sponge in a Caribbean reef.
Marine Ecology 38, Online e12379, 1-8

If you do not have access to Marine Ecology, please feel free to write me
for a pdf.

Best wishes,

Angela Marulanda
Biologist
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Cali - Colombia

*Abstract*
On Caribbean reefs, the excavating sponge *Cliona tenuis* opportunistically
colonized
​
dead skeletons of the elkhorn coral *Acropora palmata* after its massive
​
die-off in the 1980s. Further *C. tenuis* population increase occurred by
colonization
​
of other coral species, causing coral tissue death through undermining
​
of live tissue and lateral growth. To follow up on a previous (2001)
characterization
​
of the abundance and size structure of *C. tenui*s at Islas del Rosario
​
(Colombia), these factors were again estimated in 2014, along with its
substratum
​
utilization. The fate of sponge individuals colonizing massive coral
colonies
​
marked in 2001–2004 was also followed. By 2014 *C. tenuis* was still
​
disproportionally occupying dead *A. palmata* branches, but its abundance
and
​
density, and the cover of other benthic elements, had not significantly
changed
​
over the 13-year period, suggesting that a stasis has been reached. *Cliona
tenuis*
​
was thus initially favored in the 1980s, but substratum monopolization did
not
​
occur. From 2001 to 2014, small individuals increased in number and very
​
large ones decreased, suggesting not only that new recruitment is occurring,
​
but also that larger sponges are shrinking or fragmenting. Marked sponges
continued
killing corals over the first few years, but over longer times they
​
retreated or died, allowing corals to resume upward growth. However, it
could
​
not be ascertained whether the sponge retreat was age-related or the result
of
​
some environmental effect. The apparent preference for recently dead clean
​
coral by larvae of *C. tenuis* and its current dynamics of recruitment,
growth,
​
fragmentation and mortality have stabilized its space occupation at Islas
del
​ R
osario.


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