Chemical defenses and resource trade-offs structure sponge communities on Caribbean coral reefs.

ABSTRACT: Ecological studies have rarely been performed at the community level across a large biogeographic region. Sponges are now the primary habitat-forming organisms on Caribbean coral reefs. Recent species-level investigations have demonstrated that predatory fishes (angelfishes and some parrotfishes) differentially graze sponges that lack chemical defenses, while co-occurring, palatable species heal, grow, reproduce, or recruit at faster rates than defended species. Our prediction, based on resource allocation theory, was that predator removal would result in a greater proportion of palatable species in the sponge community on overfished reefs. We tested this prediction by performing surveys of sponge and fish community composition on reefs having different levels of fishing intensity across t

SUBMITTER: Loh TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3964098 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature