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Sponges also play a role in increasing the survival of live coral on Caribbean reefs by binding fragments together and is expected to increase the rates of carbonate accretion. [13] The coral reefs that contain higher amounts of sponges have better survival rate than the reefs with fewer sponges.
Giant Barrel Sponges filter a tremendous amount of water throughout their lifespan (some living up to 2000 years) which increases water clarity, controls algae, and affects coral populations. These sponges also serve as a habitat for many other species such as other invertebrates, benthic fish, bacteria, and cyanobacteria.
Bioerosion describes the breakdown of hard ocean substrates – and less often terrestrial substrates – by living organisms. Marine bioerosion can be caused by mollusks, polychaete worms, phoronids, sponges, crustaceans, echinoids, and fish; it can occur on coastlines, on coral reefs, and on ships; its mechanisms include biotic boring, drilling, rasping, and scraping.
The sponges form reefs (called sponge reefs) off the coast of British Columbia, southeast Alaska and Washington state, [15] which are studied in the Sponge Reef Project. In the case of Sarostegia oculata, this species almost always hosts symbiotic zoanthids, which cause the hexactinellid sponge to imitate the appearance and structure of coral ...
Sponge reefs are reefs produced by sea sponges. All modern sponge reefs are formed by hexactinellid sponges, which have an endoskeleton made of silica spicules and are often referred to as "glass sponges", while historically the non-spiculed, calcite-skeletoned archaeocyathid and stromatoporoid sponges were the primary reef-builders.
The Caribbean chicken-liver sponge Chondrilla nucula secretes toxins that kill coral polyps, allowing the sponges to grow over the coral skeletons. [18] Others, especially in the family Clionaidae , use corrosive substances secreted by their archeocytes to tunnel into rocks, corals and the shells of dead mollusks . [ 18 ]
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The most evidenced hypothesis of sponge-specific symbionts says that sponges were colonized prior to sponge speciation, during the Precambrian period. [15] This colonization is thought to have been maintained throughout the years by vertical transmission , which resulted in microbial species diverging alongside sponge species. [ 2 ]