Sea Sponge Respiration Rate and its Connection to Water Temperature

Abstract

Sea sponges are incredibly important foundational species in marine ecosystems. They provide habitat and food for several organisms and fix important resources like nitrogen and phosphorus. They also aid in cleaning the water by feeding on marine bacteria and viruses. However, with warming oceans due to anthropogenic climate change, the future success of sea sponges is of major concern to researchers. To test sea sponge adaptability in the higher temperature oceans the local San Juan Island Myxilla incrustan sponge had its oxygen intake compared at both ends of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) projected temperature changes in the ocean, those being 2° C warmer and 4° C warmer. This paper is then testing the hypothesis that sea sponges would show a change in their oxygen consumption with different temperatures. After experimenting, statistical tests found that there was no significance between oxygen consumption and the different water temperatures. This disagrees with other published material and is likely due to a lack of gathered data and or possible flaws with this studies experimental design. If sponges cannot adapt to warmer oceans then a large foundational species will decline in abundance due to lower available oxygen to grow, reproduce, etc. Majorly impacting established marine ecosystem dynamics. On the other hand, if sea sponges can adapt, as showcased by various published materials, to the higher water temperatures by increasing their respiratory rate then the environments where sea sponges reside could have reduced dissolved oxygen, leading to many populations of marine organisms reducing their activity. No matter which scenario occurs, warming oceans will have an impact on sea sponge populations and the important ecological niches they fill. To prevent these detrimental changes the major sources of anthropogenic climate change must be mitigated or managed in some way to aid in preventing the major impact that warmer waters will have on sea sponges and the ecosystems they reside in.