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Niche structure of marine sponges from temperate hard-bottom habitats within Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2015

Christopher J. Freeman ,
Cole G. Easson  and
David M. Baker
Christopher J. Freeman*
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL, USA
Cole G. Easson
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
David M. Baker
Affiliation:
The Swire Institute of Marine Science, School of Biological Sciences & Department of Earth Science, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China
*
Correspondence should be addressed to:C.J. Freeman, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL, USA email: freemanc@si.edu
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Abstract

Many species of marine sponges on tropical reefs host abundant and diverse symbiont communities capable of varied metabolic pathways. While such communities may confer a nutritional benefit to some hosts (termed High Microbial Abundance (HMA) sponges), other sympatric species host only sparse symbiont communities (termed Low Microbial Abundance (LMA) sponges) and obtain a majority of their C and N from local sources. Sponge communities are widespread across large latitudinal gradients, however, and recent evidence suggests that these symbioses may also extend beyond the tropics. We investigated the role that symbionts play in the ecology of sponges from the temperate, hard-bottom reefs of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary by calculating the niche size (as standard ellipse area (SEAc)) and assessing the relative placement of five HMA and four LMA sponge species within bivariate (δ13C and δ15N) isotopic space. Although photosymbiont abundance was low across most of these species, sponges were widespread across isotopic niche space, implying that microbial metabolism confers an ecological benefit to temperate sponges by expanding host metabolic capability. To examine how these associations vary across a latitudinal gradient, we also compared the relative placement of temperate and tropical conspecifics within isotopic space. Surprisingly, shifts in sponge δ13C and δ15N values between these regions suggest a reduced reliance on symbiont-derived nutrients in temperate sponges compared with their tropical conspecifics. Despite this, symbiotic sponges in temperate systems likely have a competitive advantage, allowing them to grow and compete for space within these habitats.

Keywords

Gray's Reeflatitudinal gradientisotopic niche spacemicrobesmicrobial abundancePoriferastandard ellipse areastable isotopessymbiosistemperate
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 96 , Issue 2: Proceedings of the 9th World Sponge Conference held in Fremantle Australia in 2013: New Frontiers in Sponge Science , March 2016 , pp. 559 - 565
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2015 

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