[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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