Selective feeding by the giant barrel sponge enhances foraging efficiency

McMurray, Steven E.; Johnson, Zackary I.; Hunt, Dana E.; Pawlik, Joseph R.; Finelli, Christopher M.

doi:10.1002/lno.10287

Cited by 81 publications

(167 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Notably, an increasing number of sponge species have been found to feed on DOC (Yahel et al 2003, de Goeij et al 2008b, Ribes et al 2012, Mueller et al 2014, McMurray et al 2016, Archer et al 2017, Hoer et al 2018, Morganti et al 2017, and a link between DOC uptake and detritus production has been established for additional cryptic sponge species (Alexander et al 2014, Rix et al 2016. While it was generally thought that sponge species with dense assemblages of symbiotic microbes -i.e.…”

Section: Open Pen Access Ccessmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of the sponge-loop hypothesis for emergent Caribbean reef sponges

McMurray¹,

Stubler²,

Erwin³

et al. 2018

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

154

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Section: Open Pen Access Ccessmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of the sponge-loop hypothesis for emergent Caribbean reef sponges

McMurray¹,

Stubler²,

Erwin³

et al. 2018

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

154

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“…Recently X. muta has been shown to selectively feed on different food sources to optimise the nutritional gain (McMurray et al, 2016). The model also predicted that A. queenslandica sources most of its carbon from the particulate fraction of the water column.…”

Section: Flux Balance Analysis Of Biomass Synthesismentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Nutrient sources can vary between sponge species, for example Theonella swinhoei (Yahel et al, 2003b) and Xestospongia muta (McMurray et al, 2016) use DOC as their main carbon source, while picoplankton (0.2-2.0 µm) was identified as the major food source…”

Section: Sponges Are Key Nutrient Cyclers and Producers Of Secondary mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, most of the carbon contributing to S. officinalis biomass was sourced from larger nanoeukaryotes (3-20 µm) (Topçu et al, 2010). X. muta has also been shown to discriminate between different particulate food sources, preferring to use cyanobacteria when available in the plankton (McMurray et al, 2016). During periods of increased particulate food, Haliclona oculata and Dysidea avara responded with high clearance rates and incorporation of carbon that was processed over weeks (Koopmans et al, 2010).…”

Section: Sponges Are Key Nutrient Cyclers and Producers Of Secondary mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Simplified, growth is the catabolic and anabolic conversion of food by the central metabolic network into biomass. While the potential food sources that sponges can utilise are relatively well understood (de Goeij et al, 2008a(de Goeij et al, ,b, 2013McMurray et al, 2016;Pile et al, 1996a;Rix et al, 2016;Yahel et al, 2003b), only partial analyses of the biochemical composition of sponge biomass has been reported (Chanas & Pawlik, 1995;Elvin, 1979;Koigoora et al, 2013;McClintock, 1987;Pallela et al, 2011;Stone, 1969;Vacelet et al, 1988) and very little is known of the metabolic network. …”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling sponge-symbiont metabolism

Watson¹

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Marine sponges are increasingly being recognised for their nutrient cycling ecosystem services, linking pelagic nutrients with the benthic ecosystem. Furthermore, sponges are the most prolific producers of bioactive secondary metabolites in the marine environment. Despite their ecological and commercial value, little is know about the metabolic processes that are responsible. The inability to produce sufficient sponge biomass, and thus specific bioactive compounds, has been repeatedly identified as a major bottleneck towards commercialising sponge holobiont derived drugs. Likewise, nutrient cycling by sponges has been a relatively recent advancement in marine ecology and the scale of this process is unknown. This thesis takes a systems approach to understanding sponge-symbiont metabolic processes by utilising the genomic resources available for the demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica and its bacterial symbiont AqS1. Specifically, I undertake genome-scale modelling and metabolic flux analyses to investigate the metabolic networks present in this sponge as well as its associated vertically-transmitted microbial symbiont. The goal of this thesis is to generate the data required for, and subsequently develop, a dual-species genome-scale metabolic model for A. queenslandica and AqS1. This will provide a framework to further our understanding of how sponges produce their biomass while living in an oligotrophic, tropical reef environment.To develop a genome-scale metabolic model, the biochemical composition of the organism must first be determined. Knowledge of the relative quantities of macromolecules and their respective building blocks (e.g. protein and amino acids) is vital, as each requires different substrates, enzymes and cofactors for their synthesis. I adapted and developed methods to characterise the composition and abundance of DNA, RNA, protein, lipids and carbohydrates in a marine sponge. These methods are described in detail that allows them to be easily transferred to other, non-model, large marine organisms. This is followed by a detailed analysis of A. queenslandica's macromolecular, amino acid, fatty acid and sterol composition. The biochemical data from this chapter was used to generate a biomass equation that represent the average composition of adult A. queenslandica in the metabolic model. 3To understand how the metabolic network may work towards producing more biomass, it must be considered in the context of the environmental conditions that naturally constrain growth. The dominant environmental constraint on growth on an oligotrophic reef system is nutrient availability.The abundance of key elements, such as carbon and nitrogen, were quantified throughout the course of a year. To investigate effects on the sponge of any changes in nutrient availability, I concurrently sampled sponges and analysed their biochemical composition to the macromolecular level. Chapter 4 presents these data and discusses a number of trends and correlations in the biochemical composition of the sponges with chan...

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Climate change alterations to ecosystem dominance: how might sponge‐dominated reefs function?

Bell

Rovellini

Davy

et al. 2018

Ecology

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Anthropogenic stressors are impacting ecological systems across the world. Of particular concern are the recent rapid changes occurring in coral reef systems. With ongoing degradation from both local and global stressors, future reefs are likely to function differently from current coral-dominated ecosystems. Determining key attributes of future reef states is critical to reliably predict outcomes for ecosystem service provision. Here we explore the impacts of changing sponge dominance on coral reefs. Qualitative modelling of reef futures suggests that changing sponge dominance due to increased sponge abundance will have different outcomes for other trophic levels compared with increased sponge dominance as a result of declining coral abundance. By exploring uncertainty in the model outcomes we identify the need to (1) quantify changes in carbon flow through sponges, (2) determine the importance of food limitation for sponges, (3) assess the ubiquity of the recently described "sponge loop," (4) determine the competitive relationships between sponges and other benthic taxa, particularly algae, and (5) understand how changing dominance of other organisms alters trophic pathways and energy flows through ecosystems. Addressing these knowledge gaps will facilitate development of more complex models that assess functional attributes of sponge-dominated reef ecosystems.

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Selective feeding by the giant barrel sponge enhances foraging efficiency

Cited by 81 publications

References 52 publications

A test of the sponge-loop hypothesis for emergent Caribbean reef sponges

A test of the sponge-loop hypothesis for emergent Caribbean reef sponges

Modelling sponge-symbiont metabolism

Climate change alterations to ecosystem dominance: how might sponge‐dominated reefs function?

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