RAPID - Abnormal bleaching in Cliona varians in the Florida Keys: Consequences for coral reef health.

海绵以细菌为食，当它们将水泵入组织时，从水柱中提取其他物质。这种生物过滤在珊瑚礁上发挥着重要的生态作用，并可能成为这些生境中食物网的基础，将溶解的和颗粒状的有机物质转化为可被各种生物体食用的碎屑（脱落的海绵细胞）。这种生态功能被称为海绵环，而拟议的研究测试了海绵环的一个未被探索的方面。海绵通常支持密集和多样化的共生体社区，有助于其整体生态性能。目前尚不清楚共生体群落如何对宿主海绵的生态性能做出贡献。在最近的大规模珊瑚漂白事件（即，在佛罗里达群岛，通常不会漂白的藻类共生体海绵也被发现漂白了。这一不寻常的观察提供了机会，以测试有关共生体在海绵环中的作用的想法。也就是说，正在考虑的假设是，共生协会的破坏损害了海绵的生物过滤能力。该项目的更广泛影响包括培训本科生，产生新的科学信息，进行公开演讲，并将此工作与里士满大学现有的综合科学课程联系起来。珊瑚礁生态系统的健康可能通过海绵环直接与珊瑚礁海绵的正常功能联系在一起。碎屑食物网可能依赖于脱落的海绵细胞的持续输入，通过这些细胞，溶解的和颗粒状的有机物被加工成生物可用的材料。先前的工作表明，宿主海绵的共生体状态可能会影响进食和泵吸行为，但没有直接测试的影响共生体状态的海绵回路已经进行。最近的漂白事件涉及clionaid海绵在较低的佛罗里达键提供了一个机会来测试的假设，珊瑚礁的健康是一个功能的健康海绵共生体种群通过主机过滤效率和喂养行为。该研究项目的重点是共生系统，主机行为和生态系统功能之间的相互作用，使用Cliona varians。将使用IN-EX采样采集水样，然后进行流式细胞术和海绵排出物质的显微镜分析。稳定同位素签名的主机将进行比较之前，期间和之后的漂白事件。

Sponges feed on bacteria and extract other material from the water column as they pump water through their tissues. This bio-filtration plays important ecological roles on coral reefs, and may serve as the base of food webs in these habitats by turning dissolved and particulate organic material into detritus (shed sponge cells) that can be eaten by a variety of organisms. This ecological function is known as the sponge loop, and the proposed research tests an unexplored aspect of the sponge loop. Sponges typically support dense and diverse symbiont communities that contribute to their overall ecological performance. It is unknown how the symbiont communities contribute to the ecological performance of the host sponge. During the recent mass coral bleaching event (i.e., loss of algal symbionts) in the Florida Keys, sponges with algal symbionts, that normally do not bleach, were also found to have bleached. This unusual observation offers the opportunity to test ideas about the role of symbionts in the sponge loop. That is, the hypothesis under consideration is that disruption of symbiotic associations compromises a sponge's bio-filtration capacity. The broader impacts of this project includes training undergraduate students, producing new scientific information, presenting public talks, and tying this work into existing integrated science courses at the University of Richmond.The health of coral reef ecosystems may be tied directly to the normal functioning of coral reef sponges through the sponge loop. Detrital food webs may rely on the continued input of shed sponge cells through which dissolved and particulate organic matter are processed into biologically usable material. Previous work indicates that the symbiont state of the host sponge might influence feeding and pumping behavior, but no direct test of the impact symbiont state has on the sponge loop has been conducted. A recent bleaching event involving clionaid sponges in the lower Florida Keys provides an opportunity to test the hypothesis that reef health is a function of health of sponge symbiont populations through host filtration efficiency and feeding behavior. This research project focuses on interactions between symbiotic systems, host behavior, and ecosystem function using Cliona varians. Water samples will be collected using IN-EX sampling followed by flow cytometry and microscopic analysis of the material expelled by sponges. Stable isotopic signatures of the hosts will be compared before, during, and after bleaching events.