Depth-specific differences in growth of the reef sponge Callyspongia vaginalis: role of bottom-up effects

Trussell, Geoffrey C.; Lesser, Michael P.; Patterson, Mark; Genovese, Salvatore J.

doi:10.3354/meps323149

Cited by 69 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Barthel (1986) did not find any correlations between temperature and food availability in the Baltic Sea, and suggested that temperature may be linked with respiration rates to explain growth patterns. Depth-associated picoplankton availability has been implicated in the growth in some Caribbean sponge species (Lesser 2006, Trussell et al 2006 but not others . Duckworth et al (2004) found that sponges grew fastest in areas of high flow and postulated that this may be due to improved delivery of food, which enables sponges to feed with minimal pumping.…”

Section: Growth Rates and Seasonalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a resource trade-off between growth and chemical defenses among Caribbean coral reef sponges

Leong¹,

Pawlik²

2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Like all organisms, sponges allocate resources to life functions such as growth and reproduction. Additionally, some sponges are defended by secondary metabolites that deter potential predators. Assuming resources are limiting, species that produce defensive metabolites should allocate fewer resources to growth and reproduction. To test the hypothesis that there is a trade-off between chemical defense and growth, predator exclusion experiments were conducted to compare the growth rates of 7 common Caribbean sponge species with similar branching morphologies: chemically undefended species Callyspongia armigera, Iotrochota birotulata and Niphates erecta, and defended species Amphimedon compressa, Aplysina cauliformis, Aplysina fulva and Ptilocaulis walpersi. Thirty field experiments lasting 124 to 195 d were performed over a 9 yr period on a total of 1158 sponges. A 3-factor ANOVA was used to compare the effects of chemical defense (undefended/ defended), treatment (uncaged/caged) and season (summer/winter). Despite the fact that different sponge species could be allocating resources differently to reproduction, thereby potentially obscuring the interaction between growth and chemical defense, growth in cages was significantly greater for undefended than defended sponges (110.4 versus 65.8% growth yr -1 ). While the growth of chemically defended sponges inside and outside of cages was not different, growth of undefended sponges inside cages was significantly greater than outside cages, confirming that palatable sponge species were grazed by sponge-eating fishes. Growth during winter months was significantly less for both undefended and defended sponges compared to growth during summer months, but again, growth was greater for undefended sponges than for defended sponges. Differences in growth rates demonstrate that sponge species have evolved alternative allocation patterns to cope with resource constraints, as well as predation, and provide evidence that there is a metabolic cost associated with chemical defenses.

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Section: Growth Rates and Seasonalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a resource trade-off between growth and chemical defenses among Caribbean coral reef sponges

Leong¹,

Pawlik²

2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…While arguable, these criticisms overlook the clear signal in the data from the remaining replicates that supported the first iteration of the experiment: (1) the absence of enhanced sponge growth at the deeper site, indicating a lack of food limitation, and (2) a strong effect of predation at the deeper site where cages were left intact. We maintain that the first iteration of the experiment reported in Pawlik et al (2013) is an unequivocal test of the bottom-up control hypothesis of Lesser (2006), and that the second iteration, while incomplete, supports the first and reveals that the lack of cage controls was a design flaw in Trussell et al (2006).…”

Section: Manipulative Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They seem to want to move this critical depth to 30 m or below, thereby shifting the argument to mesophotic depths. As we explained in our review, the 15 m critical depth was employed to separate sponge populations generally exposed to less and more POC on the basis of a large body of work at Conch Reef, including the manipulative experiments of Trussell et al (2006), who compared depths of 12 and 25 m. Even at mesophotic depths, a gradient of increasing sponge biomass with greater depth is not supported. Using video transects from submersibles, Maldonado & Young (1996) described a dramatic de crease in sponge abundance and species diversity on the Bahamian slope between 100 and 230 m, and a similar decrease in sponge abundance with depth was reported from dredge and trawl studies of the Barbados slope (Lewis 1965).…”

Section: Sponge Distributions and Abundancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Slattery & Lesser (2015, p. 278) quote our review (Pawlik et al 2015, p. 278), that 'no unequivocal evidence for food limitation of sponges from Caribbean reefs has been reported from manipulative ex periments'. The one manipulative experiment reporting food limitation (Trussell et al 2006) lacked cages to prevent sponge-eating fishes from eating the palatable sponge C. vaginalis used in those experiments; indeed, angelfishes can be observed taking bites of C. vaginalis in video footage taken on the same reef (Loh & Pawlik 2014, Supporting information therein, Movie S1). Further, because this sponge species has a very rapid rate of healing (Walters & Pawlik 2005), it is not surprising that bite marks were not observed on the unprotected sponges.…”

Section: Correlation Of Depth With Size and Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This iteration was designed in the same way as the first, but used the same palatable tube sponge (C. vaginalis) previously employed without cage controls by Trussell et al (2006). The initial design was robust, but winter storms hit Conch Reef during the 358 d experiment, removing 3 to 7 of each of 20 treatment sponges at each depth, and all but 3 of the cages from caged treatments at 15 m (Pawlik et al 2013, Fig.…”

Section: Manipulative Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No evidence for food limitation of Caribbean reef sponges: Reply to Slattery & Lesser (2015)

Pawlik¹,

McMurray²,

Erwin³

et al. 2015

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Slattery & Lesser (2015; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 527:275-279) offer a Comment on our review of the literature for evidence of bottom-up control of sponge communities on Caribbean reefs. We briefly address the criticisms presented in the Comment and reiterate the lack of evidence for food limitation, including inter-oceanic comparisons of Caribbean reefs with IndoPacific oligotrophic reefs, where sponge communities show strong evidence of food limitation, and past and recent evidence for the importance of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in sponge nutrition. We did not claim that 'predation is the primary process that determines the growth, biomass and biodiversity of sponges on Caribbean coral reefs,' but we identified 3 depth-related factors that influence sponge community structure on Caribbean reefs: turbulence, spatial competition and predation. We agree that multifactorial manipulative experiments are the best way to address the interaction between top-down and bottom-up processes in this system; indeed, one such experiment has been performed, with an outcome that does not support bottom-up effects.

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Sponge density increases with depth throughout the Caribbean

Lesser

Slattery

2018

Ecosphere

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Mesophotic coral reefs (MCEs) are ecologically unique components of coral reef ecosystems that occur at depths from ~30 to 150 m where they support a high number of depth‐endemic species. One ecologically important taxonomic group that can, especially in the Caribbean basin, dominate these habitats are sponges where they occur throughout the shallow (<30 m) to mesophotic depth range. There are an increasing number of studies on MCEs generally, and sponges have become a focal area for many of these studies as they exhibit a number of ecological and functional traits that vary with increasing depth. Here, we use an analysis of both historical and contemporary data to test the recently described “sponges increase with depth” hypothesis. While this hypothesis has recently been rejected without benefit of any quantitative analysis, we show that the density or percent cover of sponges increases over the shallow to mesophotic depth range for multiple reef sites in the Caribbean, and also in the Pacific at selected sites. The proximate cause for this pattern appears to be the increasing availability of trophic resources, and the ability to differentially use those resources, with increasing depth. The increase in sponge density or percent cover with depth is potentially global in nature and results in diverse, and unique, sponge‐dominated communities at mesophotic depths.

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Depth-specific differences in growth of the reef sponge Callyspongia vaginalis: role of bottom-up effects

Cited by 69 publications

References 48 publications

Evidence of a resource trade-off between growth and chemical defenses among Caribbean coral reef sponges

Evidence of a resource trade-off between growth and chemical defenses among Caribbean coral reef sponges

No evidence for food limitation of Caribbean reef sponges: Reply to Slattery & Lesser (2015)

Sponge density increases with depth throughout the Caribbean

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