[Coral-List] Carbon flux from sponges on coral reefs

Pawlik, Joseph pawlikj at uncw.edu
Tue Sep 26 09:27:50 EDT 2017


Re-posting from the sponge list server:
Dear colleagues,

Sponges play a variety of functional roles in marine ecosystems; but how may changes in the abundance and size structure of populations alter the magnitude of these roles? We are pleased to alert you to a recent publication by our group that provides a framework for exploring the relationship between population and ecosystem processes:


McMurray SE, Pawlik JR, Finelli CM. 2017. Demography alters carbon flux for a dominant benthic suspension feeder, the giant barrel sponge, on Conch Reef, Florida Keys. Functional Ecology https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12908


We used measurements of filtration rates of particulate and dissolved organic carbon and 12 years of demographic data to parameterize a stage-based matrix model of population-mediated carbon flux for the Caribbean giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta. Our findings suggest that the growth of sponges in all size classes, and the survival and production of new recruits by the largest sponges had the greatest influence on changes in population-mediated carbon flux. Moreover, projections indicated that carbon flux will continue to increase under present conditions.

This manuscript has recently been highlighted by the British Ecological Society in its Aquatic Ecology Virtual Issue-that means that it's currently free to access and download from http://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/issue/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2435.BESAG_VI_2017/

Regards,
Steve

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Steven E McMurray, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
UNCW Center for Marine Science
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
Wilmington, NC  28409
Office: 910-962-2387
mcmurrays at uncw.edu<mailto:mcmurrays at uncw.edu>
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Joseph R. Pawlik
Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology
Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
UNCW Center for Marine Science
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
Wilmington, NC  28409
Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
Video Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011
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