TY - JOUR
T1 - Current status of coral takeover by an encrusting excavating sponge in a Caribbean reef
AU - Marulanda-Gómez, Ángela
AU - López-Victoria, Mateo
AU - Zea, Sven
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Blackwell Verlag GmbH
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - On Caribbean reefs, the excavating sponge Cliona tenuis opportunistically colonized dead skeletons of the elkhorn coral Acropora palmata after its massive die-off in the 1980s. Further C. tenuis population increase occurred by colonization of other coral species, causing coral tissue death through undermining of live tissue and lateral growth. To follow up on a previous (2001) characterization of the abundance and size structure of C. tenuis at Islas del Rosario (Colombia), these factors were again estimated in 2014, along with its substratum utilization. The fate of sponge individuals colonizing massive coral colonies marked in 2001–2004 was also followed. By 2014 C. tenuis was still disproportionally occupying dead A. palmata branches, but its abundance and density, and the cover of other benthic elements, had not significantly changed over the 13-year period, suggesting that a stasis has been reached. Cliona tenuis was thus initially favored in the 1980s, but substratum monopolization did not occur. From 2001 to 2014, small individuals increased in number and very large ones decreased, suggesting not only that new recruitment is occurring, but also that larger sponges are shrinking or fragmenting. Marked sponges continued killing corals over the first few years, but over longer times they retreated or died, allowing corals to resume upward growth. However, it could not be ascertained whether the sponge retreat was age-related or the result of some environmental effect. The apparent preference for recently dead clean coral by larvae of C. tenuis and its current dynamics of recruitment, growth, fragmentation and mortality have stabilized its space occupation at Islas del Rosario.
AB - On Caribbean reefs, the excavating sponge Cliona tenuis opportunistically colonized dead skeletons of the elkhorn coral Acropora palmata after its massive die-off in the 1980s. Further C. tenuis population increase occurred by colonization of other coral species, causing coral tissue death through undermining of live tissue and lateral growth. To follow up on a previous (2001) characterization of the abundance and size structure of C. tenuis at Islas del Rosario (Colombia), these factors were again estimated in 2014, along with its substratum utilization. The fate of sponge individuals colonizing massive coral colonies marked in 2001–2004 was also followed. By 2014 C. tenuis was still disproportionally occupying dead A. palmata branches, but its abundance and density, and the cover of other benthic elements, had not significantly changed over the 13-year period, suggesting that a stasis has been reached. Cliona tenuis was thus initially favored in the 1980s, but substratum monopolization did not occur. From 2001 to 2014, small individuals increased in number and very large ones decreased, suggesting not only that new recruitment is occurring, but also that larger sponges are shrinking or fragmenting. Marked sponges continued killing corals over the first few years, but over longer times they retreated or died, allowing corals to resume upward growth. However, it could not be ascertained whether the sponge retreat was age-related or the result of some environmental effect. The apparent preference for recently dead clean coral by larvae of C. tenuis and its current dynamics of recruitment, growth, fragmentation and mortality have stabilized its space occupation at Islas del Rosario.
KW - Cliona tenuis
KW - competition
KW - coral reefs
KW - corals
KW - excavating sponges
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85012231685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/maec.12379
DO - 10.1111/maec.12379
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85012231685
SN - 0173-9565
VL - 38
JO - Marine Ecology
JF - Marine Ecology
IS - 1
M1 - e12379
ER -