Sponge monitoring: Moving beyond diversity and abundance measures

Bell, James J.; Biggerstaff, Andrew; Bates, Tracey; Bennett, Holly; Marlow, Joseph; McGrath, Emily; Shaffer, Megan

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.03.001

Cited by 36 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 224 publications

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“…The use of effective surrogate taxa could provide useful options for such approaches and further assist in marine cave conservation. Morphological diversity measures and standardized classification schemes, related to ecosystem functions, have been also suggested as a means for studying the structural and functional composition of sessile benthos in several hard habitat types, the marine caves included, enabling wide implementation even by non-taxonomists [ 33 – 37 ]. However, the functional diversity and composition of hard substrate sessile communities has been rarely examined, at least in the Mediterranean Sea, and the traits linked to the ecosystem functioning of sciaphilic communities have not yet been clearly identified [ 38 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taxonomic and functional surrogates of sessile benthic diversity in Mediterranean marine caves

Gerovasileiou

Dimitriadis²,

Arvanitidis

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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Hard substrates host globally a rich biodiversity, orders of magnitude higher in species number than that in surrounding soft substrates. Among them, marine caves support unique biodiversity and fragile communities but suffer lack of quantitative data on their structure and function, hindering their conservation status assessment. A first approach to the non-destructive ecological monitoring of marine caves by testing surrogates of structural and functional composition of sessile benthos was attempted in two species-rich Mediterranean marine caves. Photographic sampling was performed in different positions on the cave walls, across the horizontal axis, from the entrance inwards. Eighty-four taxa were identified and assigned to 6 biological traits and 32 modalities related to morphology, behavior and ecological affinities, with sponges being the dominant taxon in species richness and coverage. In quest of possible biological surrogates, we examined the spatial variability of the total community structure and function and separately the sponge community structure and function. The observed patterns of the above metrics were significantly correlated with the distance from the entrance, the small-scale variability and their interaction. A positive correlation was found between all examined pairs of those metrics, supporting that: (i) the developed functional approach could be used for the study of marine cave sessile communities, and (ii) sponges could be used as a surrogate taxon for the structural and functional study of these communities. The suggested method could be tested in other types of hard substrate habitats and in multiple locations of the Mediterranean waters, facilitating monitoring schemes and conservation actions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taxonomic and functional surrogates of sessile benthic diversity in Mediterranean marine caves

Gerovasileiou

Dimitriadis²,

Arvanitidis

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Our preliminary study revealed the decreased HSP70 level of in L. baicalensis both in the case of bleaching after exposure to 13 °C, and in diseased individuals from Lake Baikal (Itskovich et al, 2018). At present, little is known about the HSP70 production in response to chronic stress, since most studies deal with acute stress of Porifera (Bell et al, 2017). Mass sponge disease in Lake Baikal indicates that sponges are subject to chronic stress in the lake.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For all monitoring programs, it is important to identify monitoring parameters and to determine the most appropriate indicators. In particular, for sponge monitoring a focus on specific sponge populations with estimates of abundance and taxonomic composition at regular intervals should be a important part of the program (Bell et al, 2017). Sponge tissue can be sampled periodically for microbial community composition, metabolite production and stress protein expression, which will provide a large amount of data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in the gene expression patterns of stress proteins can serve as a biomarker to assess levels of acute stress and determine the environmental load on a sponge (Bell et al, 2017). Heat shock proteins (Hsps) play an important role in maintaining protein homeostasis during adaptation of organisms to variable environmental conditions (Parsell and Lindquist, 1993;Feder and Hofmann, 1999;Tomanek, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sponges Lubomirskiidae as bioindicators of the state of Lake Baikal.

Ицкович

Shigarova

Glyzina

et al. 2019

LFWB

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Sponges are ideal bioindicators of the environmental state due to their simple body structure, filter-feeding lifestyle and widespread abundance.For marine sponges, stress response studies are conducted in the field of microbial composition, gene expression and transcriptome techniques. For freshwater sponges expression of the stress protein HSP70 was studied. In the Baikal sponges, the content of HSP70 is an indicator of the stress response to temperature increase. Transcriptomic studies of the endemic Baikal sponges are in progress.

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“…Large sponges may also be serving as zoogeographical "steppingstones" as suggested by Collette and Rützler (1977), as well as recruitment habitat for several species of fish and benthic invertebrates (Tyler and Böhlke, 1972;Colin and Clavijo, 1988;Rocha et al, 2000;Rocha, 2003;García-Sais et al, 2007, 2010b. Future benthic surveys of Puerto Rican altiphotic and mesophotic coral reefs should include sponges in their ecology assessments, especially the most common and large species (Wulff, 2001;Bell et al, 2017). These large sponges play a key role in the overall health of the coral reef ecosystem by providing ecological services (Diaz and Rützler, 2001;de Goeij et al, 2013), and in some instances, contribute to the preservation of associated fauna biodiversity (Thomas and Klebba, 2006;Hultgren et al, 2010;Padua et al, 2013;Rix et al, 2018).…”

Section: Sponge Assemblagementioning

confidence: 99%

Fish, Coral, and Sponge Assemblages Associated With Altiphotic and Mesophotic Reefs Along the Guánica Biosphere Reserve Continental Shelf Edge, Southwest Puerto Rico

et al. 2018

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The benthic and fish communities of the central portion of the Guánica, Puerto Rico shelf edge were studied to determine species abundance, distributions and species overlap between two depth stratifications, 20 and 45 m, at eight sites. A total of 67 fish species belonging to 21 families were identified. Similar species richness estimates were observed between depths, though fish assemblage composition differed significantly, with observable changes in feeding guild contributions of herbivore and omnivore (20 m) to a deeper assemblage composed of piscivores and planktivores (45 m). Coral assemblages consisted of 31 species at 20 m and 11 species at 45 m, accounting for 17.0% (±1.76 SE) and 2.6% (±0.89 SE) benthic cover for the altiphotic and mesophotic surveys, respectively. The altiphotic and mesophotic coral reef communities support different scleractinian coral assemblages with minimal species overlap. Altiphotic surveys of sponges yielded a higher species richness than mesophotic, with 60 and 54 species respectively, and an overall total of 71 species identified from both depths, with 45 species overlapping (63.0%). The percent cover of sponges surveyed at altiphotic reefs accounted for 9.0% (±1.04 SE), while the percent cover of sponges surveyed at mesophotic reefs was 14.0% (±1.96 SE). Our data show fish, coral, and sponge assemblages are differentiated between 20 and 45 m along the Guánica shelf edge offshore of the Guánica Biosphere Reserve. This study represents the first observations for species distributions of adjacent altiphotic and mesophotic coral reef habitats along the Guánica shelf edge, as well as provides an annotated species list of the local sponge fauna. Combined, these results highlight the need for continued environmental stewardship and conservation in the area.

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Sponge monitoring: Moving beyond diversity and abundance measures

Cited by 36 publications

References 224 publications

Taxonomic and functional surrogates of sessile benthic diversity in Mediterranean marine caves

Taxonomic and functional surrogates of sessile benthic diversity in Mediterranean marine caves

Sponges Lubomirskiidae as bioindicators of the state of Lake Baikal.

Fish, Coral, and Sponge Assemblages Associated With Altiphotic and Mesophotic Reefs Along the Guánica Biosphere Reserve Continental Shelf Edge, Southwest Puerto Rico

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