Recovery of Sponges After Extreme Mortality Events: Morphological and Taxonomic Patterns in Regeneration Versus Recruitment

Extreme mortality events on the Belize Barrier Reef caused significant and differential impacts on sponge species, with some groups showing efficient regeneration while others relied on recruitment or failed to recover. The study, spanning 6 years with 8 censuses, revealed that sponge recovery varied by higher taxa and growth forms, with orders like Aplysinida and Poecilosclerida suffering severe losses during the 2008 event, while Hadromerida and Dictyoceratida were disproportionately affected in 2011. Recovery was rapid initially due to partial mortality of massive sponges but was hindered by the loss of entire individuals in some groups. These findings underscore the importance of species-level identification in monitoring efforts and highlight the need for further research into sponge systematics and resilience.

Wulff, J. (2013). Recovery of Sponges After Extreme Mortality Events: Morphological and Taxonomic Patterns in Regeneration Versus Recruitment. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 53(3), 512–523. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/ict059