[Coral-List] Barrel sponge nutrition in the Red Sea

[Pawlik, Joseph]

We're pleased to announce a new paper with collaborators from KAUST published in Limnology and Oceanography that provides evidence for food limitation in barrel sponges across an inshore-offshore gradient in the Red Sea. This study used the same In/Ex experimental techniques that were used to assess feeding of barrel sponges at Caribbean sites, and adds data on sponge respiration.
As with barrel sponges in the Caribbean, there was no evidence of net detritus production, contrary to the penultimate step of the sponge-loop hypothesis. Further evidence is also provided for a threshold level below which sponges do not take up DOC.

This study provides further evidence that sponge communities in the Caribbean evolved under different nutritional conditions. Red Sea sponge communities (like most oligotrophic Indo-Pacific reefs) are subject to food limitation, and are dominated by foliose phototrophic sponges, which are absent in the Caribbean. Caribbean sponge communities have a wide range of morphologies, and are not subject to food limitation.

The citation is:
Wooster, M. K., McMurray, S. E., Pawlik, J. R., Morán, X. A. and Berumen, M. L. (2019), Feeding and respiration by giant barrel sponges across a gradient of food abundance in the Red Sea. Limnol Oceanogr. doi:10.1002/lno.11151<https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11151>

The paper is Open Access.

Here is the direct link:
https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lno.11151

Regards,

Joe


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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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