Ecological interactions of marine sponges

Abstract

Sponges interact with most other organisms in marine systems as competitors, symbionts, hosts of symbionts, consumers, and prey. Considerable creative energy has been required to study and describe the amazing variety of sponge interactions, as sponges can hide symbionts deep inside, rapidly regenerate wounds from grazers, carry on important associations with unculturable microscopic organisms, and otherwise foil attempts to determine how they are interacting with other organisms. This review of sponge interactions covers (i) competition among sponge species, and between sponges and other sessile organisms; (ii) predation on sponges by sponge specialists and by opportunistic sponge feeders, and aspects of predation such as the importance of nutritional quality, trade-offs between growth and defense against predators, biogeographic patterns in predation, and the advantages of various techniques for studying predation; and (iii) symbiotic associations of sponges with a variety of organisms representing all types of life, and with results ranging from parasitism and disease to mutual benefit. A hint that some generalizations about ecological interactions of sponges may be possible is just becoming evident, as accumulating data appear to show taxonomic and geographic patterns; however, it is also clear that surprises will continue to emerge from every probing new study.Résumé : Les éponges réagissent à la plupart des autres organismes des systèmes marins, en tant que compétiteurs, symbiotes, hôtes de symbiotes, consommateurs et proies. L'étude et la description de la remarquable variété d'interactions chez les éponges a nécessité beaucoup d'énergie créative, car les éponges peuvent cacher leurs symbiotes profondément en elles-mêmes, régénérer rapidement les blessures faites par les brouteurs, établir des associations importantes avec des organismes microscopiques impossibles à cultiver et, de diverses manières, contrecarrer les tentatives pour déterminer comment elles interagissent avec les autres organismes. La présente rétrospective des interactions des éponges inclut (i) la compétition entre les espèces d'éponges et entre les éponges et les autres organismes sessiles, (ii) la prédation sur les éponges par les prédateurs spécialisés et par les espèces opportunistes qui les consomment, de même que divers aspects de la prédation, tels que l'importance de la qualité de la nourriture, les compromis entre la croissance et la défense contre les prédateurs, les patrons biogéographiques de la prédation et les avantages des diverses techniques utilisées pour étudier la prédation et finalement (iii) les associations symbiotiques entre les éponges et une variété d'organismes représentant tous les types de vie qui mènent à une gamme de relations allant du parasitisme et de la maladie au bénéfice mutuel. Il commence à y avoir des indications qu'il sera possible de faire des généralisa-tions sur les interactions écologiques des éponges, puisque les données accumulées semblent montrer des patrons taxonomiques et géographiques; ce...

Spongivory by Fishes on Southwestern Atlantic Coral Reefs: No Evidence of Top-Down Control on Sponge Assemblages

“…Sediment-incorporation by the sponge can also reduce the necessity of spicule formation (i.e., spiculogenesis) saving energy that can be allocated to other biological demands such as growth, reproduction and competition (Schönberg, 2016). In addition, D. achorata morphology can also occur as a branching form, avoiding sediment accumulation, with relatively high growth rates, that may accelerate the recovery of predation and competition damages (Wulff, 2006). These adaptations to high sediment conditions (e.g., branching morphology, fast growth rates and rapid regeneration) can explain the increased cover of D. anchorata in TSB reefs.…”

“…Within reef environments, generally sponges are better competitors for space than corals (Aerts, 1998;Pawlik, 2011), mostly due to their defense strategies (Wulff, 2006), as secondary metabolites, and overgrow ability (Aerts, 1998;Meurer et al, 2010). Sponges can negatively affect the recruitment and growth of hermatypic corals, as well as other important coral reefs processes (e.g., substrate construction) (Chadwick and Morrow, 2011).…”

SEM-EDS and X-ray micro computed tomography studies of skeletal surface pattern and body structure in the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris collected from Goczalkowice reservoir habit (Southern Poland)

“…It is noted that gemmulation process may be caused by endogenous factors and specific environmental conditions (physical and chemical parameters of water) [18,19]. Some studies have demonstrated the morphological diversity of S. lacustris growth forms from different water habits, where body shape was appeared as encrusting to digitated, to branched and arborescent according to the life cycle stage and environmental conditions.…”

Treatise Online, no. 21: Part E, Revised, Volume 4, Chapter 2B: Functional morphology of the fossil hypercalcified chaetetid-type Porifera (Demospongiae)

“…However, the Functional Morphology of Chaetetid-Type Porifera 3 fact that carbonates containing domical and columnar chaetetids are also low in siliciclastics led West and rotH (1991) to suggest that these chaetetids might have contained some photosynthesizing symbionts like zooxanthellae and competed with the algae for space. Supporting this suggestion is the reported association between autotrophs and bacteria within marine sponges (Wulff, 2006). erWin and tHacker (2006) reported photosymbionts in reef sponges, and Hill, lopez, and Harriott (2006) reported sponge-specific cyanobacterial and other bacterial symbionts in Caribbean sponges.…”