Importance of Sponges in a reef..

[msjboy]

Interesting read on recent findings regarding sea sponges article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24398394

Sponges help coral reefs thrive in ocean deserts:

The mystery of how coral reefs thrive in "ocean deserts" has been solved, scientists say.

Reefs are among Earth's most vibrant ecosystems, yet they flourish in waters lacking nutrients - a phenomenon known as Darwin's Paradox.

A team found that sponges keep the reef alive - by recycling vast amounts of organic matter to feed snails, crabs and other creatures.

Writing in Science, they hope their findings will aid conservation.

Sponges recycle nearly ten times as much matter as bacteria, and produce as much nutrition as all the corals and algae in a reef combined, the scientists calculate.

They are the "unsung heroes" of the reef community, said lead author Jasper de Goeij, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Amsterdam.

"Up until now no-one has really paid sponges much attention. They look nice, but everybody was more interested in corals and fish," he told BBC News.


The scientists tested sponges in a Caribbean reef
"But it turns out that sponges are big players - and they deserve credit for their role.

"If you want a reef which is colourful and biodiverse, you need a 'sponge loop' to maintain it."

It was during his voyage on the Beagle that Charles Darwin famously observed that tropical reefs are like oases in a desert.

They are surrounded by waters lacking nitrogen and phosphorus - the building blocks of life - which ought to prohibit their growth.

And since corals release up to half their organic matter into seawater, reefs need a system to recover these nutrients and recycle them into the ecosystem.

Bacteria do part of the job, but are not abundant enough to service the chemical dependencies of a whole teeming reef community.

Sugar daddies
Sponges (poriferans) are filter feeders which live in rock crevices, sucking up plankton and organic matter released into the sea by corals.

The idea that they could be a missing link in the reef food cycle has been proposed before.

But it was not clear how much nutrition they could supply, nor how exactly they feed their reef neighbours - worms, crustaceans and other sea floor foragers.

On the Caribbean island of Curacao, de Goeij and his team studied four common species of sponges - first in laboratory aquariums, then in a natural reef where the scientists sealed off a cavity.


Sponges are not usually the stars of conservation campaigns - but they hold reef ecosystems together
They fed the poriferans with labelled sugars - and traced these molecules on their journey.

First the sugars were absorbed from the water by the sponges, then quickly shed in dead filter cells (choanocytes) - detritus which fell to the seabed.

Within two days, the same molecules were present in snails and other creatures feeding on the sediment containing sponge waste.

These snails are in turn eaten by larger animals, and so the cycle continues.

It was not only the speed, but the sheer volume of food turnover which took the authors by surprise - about 10 times more than bacteria recycle.

The sponge Halisarca caerulea for example takes up two-thirds of its body weight in dissolved carbon each day, but it barely grows in size - because old cells are shed to the seabed.

In total, the Dutch team estimated this "sponge loop" produced nearly as many nutrients as all the primary producers (corals and algae) in an entire tropical reef.

And other marine deserts, like deep-sea cold-water coral reefs or temperate Mediterranean reefs, may also rely on poriferans to recycle their nutrients.

By recognising sponges as lynchpins - the unheralded heroes of the reef - they hope to aid conservation efforts in these fragile havens.

[Magickiwi]

Good read, thanks for posting this.

[paddyob]

Did the article mention many sponges will not thrive, or live long, in an aquarium?

There is a recent thread on this.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by paddyob

Did the article mention many sponges will not thrive, or live long, in an aquarium?

There is a recent thread on this.

This article is purely about coral reefs and not about the hobby:

The mystery of how coral reefs thrive in "ocean deserts" has been solved, scientists say

Alongside, there are sponges that can easily thrive and help captive environments (forgot the names; almost every matured reefs have most of them, doing an excellent job by filtering water). Its the ornamental and fancy ones that are hard to keep.

[KPG007]

While I take good care of my tanks, I do not do everything I need to do to maintain a low nutrient system. One thing I do though, is I add KZ Sponge power to my tank to help promote better sponge growth. When I move rock the under sides are usually covered in sponge. Because of this (and other small things) my tanks are bright and colorful, with excellent growth.
I have always heard and believed sponges to be excellent biological filters. Reading an article like this reaffirms this. Nice article.

[kien]

Originally Posted by KPG007

I have always heard and believed sponges to be excellent biological filters. Reading an article like this reaffirms this. Nice article.

I completely agree. It is also for this reason that I like using live rock. Lots of hitchhiker sponges that proliferate. Granted, there's also the potential of bad hitchhikers but in my experience it has always been easier to remove bad hitchhikers than to add good hitchhikers, like sponges.

[daniella3d]

I have one that I love and it's doing great now: I always had a love for sponges but those what we can keep in an aquarium are those that are photosynthetic, like the blue haliclona and they do need silicate to grow well. This sponge produce tubular structure up to 5'' tall and it does not do well when Chemiclean is used as it completely bleach and some part or whole die. I think it has a symbioze with some sort of cyanobacterias?

Originally Posted by paddyob

Did the article mention many sponges will not thrive, or live long, in an aquarium?

There is a recent thread on this.

[SanguinesDream]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I have one that I love and it's doing great now: I always had a love for sponges but those what we can keep in an aquarium are those that are photosynthetic, like the blue haliclona and they do need silicate to grow well. This sponge produce tubular structure up to 5'' tall and it does not do well when Chemiclean is used as it completely bleach and some part or whole die. I think it has a symbioze with some sort of cyanobacterias?

Those are gorgeous, although everything in your tank is gorgeous, Daniella.

[SanguinesDream]

Originally Posted by Magickiwi

Good read, thanks for posting this.

+1

This was a fantastic read, thank you for posting it. I love the seamless colors and shapes of sponges and have always been attracted to their undulating shapes, which is enhanced now that I know how important they are in the ecosystem.

I've been very fortunate to have a multitude of sponges growing in my tank on the undersides of the LR. Pink, orange, yellow, white and deep purple .

Question though, can you get an over-proliferation of sponges?