Epizoic zoanthids reduce pumping in two Caribbean vase sponges

Consumption of dissolved organic carbon by Caribbean reef sponges

“…For sponges 1 and 2, these flow rates were equivalent to filtering water more than 4100X and 3600X their body volume daily (0.048 ± 0.008 L seawater s −1 and 0.042 ± 0.009 L seawater s −1 ; mean ± 1 SD, for sponges 1 and 2, respectively). The water pumping rates measured for the observed specimens fall on the lower end of a spectrum of values previously observed for this species (e.g., Weisz et al ; Fiore et al ; McMurray et al ), but were very similar to the average rate observed by Lewis and Finelli () at sites in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas (0.044 ± 0.007 L s −1 ). The discrepancy between our results and the range of others for this species was likely due to our approximation of the velocity distribution as parabolic across the planar area of the oscula rather than as a plug that is uniformly distributed across the oscular opening.…”

“…Consumption of DOC by Caribbean reef sponges observed by Lewis and Finelli (2015) at sites in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas (0.044 6 0.007 L s 21 L 21 sponge ). The discrepancy between our results and the range of others for this species was likely due to our approximation of the velocity distribution as parabolic across the planar area of the oscula rather than as a plug that is uniformly distributed across the oscular opening.…”

Trait-mediated ecosystem impacts: how morphology and size affect pumping rates of the Caribbean giant barrel sponge

“…Within 4 species investigated by Reiswig (1974Reiswig ( , 1981, pumping rates were nearly constant across a range of body sizes for 3 species, although the largest specimens of Verongia reiswigi (V. gigantea in Reiswig 1974) had lower tissue-specific pumping rates, while pumping rates generally decreased with sponge size for Aplysina fistularis (V. fistularis in Reiswig 1981). The mean specific volume flow of 0.06 ± 0.04 l s −1 l −1 reported in this study is similar to the mean of 0.078 l s −1 l −1 found for 5 individuals of X. muta in the Florida Keys ) and 0.044 ± 0.007 l s −1 l −1 found for 22 individuals at sites in the Florida Keys and Bahamas (Lewis & Finelli 2014). Pumping rates for X. muta are generally similar to those reported for other HMA sponges, which are consistently lower than those for LMA sponges .…”

“…Additionally, individuals fouled with algae or colonized by zoanthids were excluded, as epibionts have been shown to reduce sponge pumping rates (Lewis & Finelli 2014). The proportion of sponges excluded from our study due to disease or fouling was < 2% at all sites; the proportions of multi-oscula sponges at our study sites ranged from <1 to 11%.…”

Size Is the Major Determinant of Pumping Rates in Marine Sponges

“…More recently dye-tracking techniques (Savarese et al, 1997;Yahel et al, 2005;Tompkins-MacDonald and Leys, 2008;Weisz et al, 2008;Pfannkuchen et al, 2009) and acoustic Doppler velocimeter were used to directly measure the excurrent water velocity in situ (Yahel et al, 2003;Leys et al, 2011;McMurray et al, 2014;Lewis and Finelli, 2015;Ludeman et al, 2017). Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of pumping behavior in situ is still lacking because most of the studies separately examined the effect of environmental factors such as temperature (Frost, 1980;Riisgård et al, 1993), food (Frost, 1980;Stuart and Klumpp, 1984;Huysecom et al, 1988), and suspended sediments (Reiswig, 1971;Gerrodette and Flechsig, 1979;Leys and Lauzon, 1998;Tompkins-MacDonald and Leys, 2008;Strehlow et al, 2016;Grant et al, 2018).…”