Population dynamics of an association between a coral reef sponge and a red macroalga

Heterotrophy on ultraplankton communities is an important source of nitrogen for a sponge–rhodophyte symbiosis

“…Seawater and branches of the Haliclona-Ceratodictyon association were collected from the lagoon of One Tree Reef (23°30′S, 152°06′E), southern Great Barrier Reef; both the association (Price et al, 1984;van Soest, 1990) and location (Trautman et al, 2000) have been described. Winter trials were conducted between 20th and 21st July, 2000 and summer trials between 8th and 9th January, 2001.…”

Patterns of abundance and size across varying spatial scales for the coral reef sponge Coscinoderma matthewsi

“…Positively skewed size patterns have been recorded for other sponge species (Meroz & Ilan 1995, Trautman et al 2000, while some sponge populations are dominated by large individuals (López-Victoria & Zea 2005). For C. matthewsi, the level of skewness (on untransformed data) varied among island groups, with the highest occurring at Ugar and Masig.…”

“…Meesters et al 2001, Vermeij & Bak 2003, Richardson & Voss 2005, spatial variation has received less attention for coral reef sponges (e.g. Reiswig 1973, Trautman et al 2000.…”

Population dynamics of a mutualistic interaction between the sponge Haliclona caerulea and the red alga Jania adherens

“…However, the evolution and ecological stability of these relationships as well as the spatial and temporal scales over which the ecological relationships varied were largely unexplored (Palumbi 1985, Wilcox et al 2002. Only a few papers dealing with this matter have been published so far (Palumbi 1985, Trautman et al 2000, 2003, Ávila & Carballo 2004, most of them concerning relationships between sponges and macroalgae.…”

“…One of the most common associations is the one constituted by the haplosclerid sponge Haliclona cymiformis (Esper) (formerly Sigmadocia symbiotica Berquist & Tizard) and the red macroalga Ceratodictyon spongiosum Zanardini, which appears on shallow coral reefs of the Indo-West Pacific (Vacelet 1981, Price et al 1984. This association seems to be an obligatory relationship, as neither sponge nor alga has ever been identified growing independently or in association with other species in the study area (Trautman et al 2000). Recent findings have revealed that the spongealga symbioses may not only be autotrophic but may also benefit from the transfer of nitrogen between the symbiotic partners.…”