Andia Chaves-Fonnegra

Florida Atlantic University | FAU · Wilkes Honors College/Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) spans approximately one-third of the east coast of Florida and, in recent years, has faced frequent harmful algal blooms (HABs). Blooms of the potentially toxic diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia, occur throughout the lagoon and were reported primarily from the northern IRL. The goal of this study was to identify species of Pseu...

Disease outbreaks have caused significant declines of keystone coral species. While forecasting disease outbreaks based on environmental factors has progressed, we still lack a comparative understanding of susceptibility among coral species that would help predict disease impacts on coral communities. The present study compared the phenotypic and m...

Outbreaks of coral white plague (WP) disease have caused significant regional declines of reef‐building Caribbean corals. Due to a greater availability of epidemiological data, studies have primarily focused on shallow coral reefs (< 30 m). In the U.S. Virgin Islands, however, WP disease prevalence appears to be higher on upper mesophotic (30–40 m)...

AbstractSponges occur across diverse marine biomes and host internal microbial communities that can provide critical ecological functions. While strong patterns of host specific-ity have been observed consistently in sponge microbiomes, the precise ecological relationships between hosts and their symbiotic microbial communities remain to be fully d...

Many studies have evaluated the impacts of hurricanes on coral communities, but far less is known about impacts, recovery, and resilience of sponge communities to these extreme events. In September 2017, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, was impacted by two Category 5 hurricanes within 2 weeks: Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Such extreme events occurrin...

Competition for limited space is an important driver of benthic community structure on coral reefs. Studies of coral-algae and coral-sponge interactions often show competitive dominance of algae and sponges over corals, but little is known about the outcomes when these groups compete in a multispecies context. Multispecies competition is increasing...

As coral cover has declined on Caribbean reefs, space has become occupied by other benthic taxa, including sponges, which may affect the recruitment of new corals, thereby affecting the ability of reefs to recover to coral-dominated states. Sponges may inhibit coral recruitment by pre-empting potential recruitment space, overgrowing recruits, or th...

Changes in coral-sponge interactions can alter reef accretion/erosion balance and are important to predict trends on current algal-dominated Caribbean reefs. Although sponge abundance is increasing on some coral reefs, we lack information on how shifts from corals to bioeroding sponges occur, and how environmental factors such as anomalous seawater...

The recent increase in abundance of coral-excavating sponges is a threat to the health of coral reefs. However, the distribution and growth of these sponges are poorly documented on high latitude reefs where corals live in marginal environmental conditions. In this study, we characterize the current trends of space occupation of Cliona delitrix on...

At high latitudes (>25°), sexual reproduction and the maintenance of coral populations can be impaired by marginal environmental conditions. However, little is known about sexual reproduction of many coral species at high latitude on the northern-most extension of the Florida Reef Tract. This study aimed to histologically characterize the reproduct...

Sponges (phylum Porifera) are early-diverging metazoa renowned for establishing complex microbial symbioses. Here we present a global Porifera microbiome survey, set out to establish the ecological and evolutionary drivers of these host-microbe interactions. We show that sponges are a reservoir of exceptional microbial diversity and major contribut...

Representative sequences and taxonomy of OTUs.

Supplementary Figures 1-8 and Supplementary Tables 1-2

Metadata for sponge samples analysed in the current study.

Diversity and richness of sponge species.

Siderastrea siderea is one of the most abundant corals at high latitude shallow sites along the Florida Reef Tract (25°–27°N). This species is able to tolerate wide seawater temperature fluctuations and sedimentation stress, but its reproductive status at high latitudes and under marginal environmental conditions is poorly understood. The objective...

Cliona delitrix is one of the most abundant and destructive coral-excavating sponges on Caribbean reefs. However, basic aspects of its reproductive biology, which largely determine the species propagation potential, remain unknown. A 2-year study (October 2009 to September 2011) was conducted to determine the reproductive cycle and gametogenesis of...

Some excavating sponges are strong competitors for space on coral reefs, able to kill live coral tissue and to overgrow entire coral colonies. Stony corals with excavating sponges can die or become dislodged. To date no restoration efforts to eliminate excavating sponges from live corals have been considered. In this study we examined the effect an...

Some excavating sponges of the genus Cliona compete with live reef corals, often killing and bioeroding entire colonies. Important aspects affecting distribution of these species, such as dispersal capability and population structure, remain largely unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine levels of genetic connectivity and dispersal o...

Background: Demosponges are challenging for phylogenetic systematics because of their plastic and relatively simple morphologies and many deep divergences between major clades. To improve understanding of the phylogenetic relationships within Demospongiae, we sequenced and analyzed seven nuclear housekeeping genes involved in a variety of cellular...

The Caribbean sponge Cliona delitrix is among the strongest reef space competitors; it is able to overpower entire coral heads by undermining coral polyps. It has become abundant in reefs exposed to organic pollution, such as San Andre´s Island, Colombia, SW Caribbean. Forty-four sponge-colonized coral colonies were followed-up for 13 months to est...

The Caribbean encrusting and excavating sponge Cliona tenuis successfully competes for space with reef corals by undermining, killing, and displacing live coral tissue at rates of up to 20 cm per year. The crude extract from this sponge, along with the more polar partitions, kills coral tissue and lowers the photosynthetic potential of coral zooxan...

It is known that the encrusting and excavating Caribbean sponge Cliona delitrix may increase its abundance near sources of sewage. To ascertain whether its current conspicuousness in leeward reefs of San Andrés Island (SW Caribbean, Colombia) is related to organic pollution from local raw sewage discharges, quantitative data on density and cover of...

Sponges which simultaneously encrust and excavate calcareous substratum are strong space competitors in coral reefs, actively undermining and displacing live coral tissue. On Caribbean reefs, Cliona delitrix colonizes massive corals, encrusting, deeply excavating and aggressively killing entire coral heads. To establish the details of the process o...

The Caribbean encrusting and excavating sponges Cliona aprica, C. caribbaea, C. delitrix and C. tenuis (Porifera, Hadromerida, Clionaidae), aggresively undermine and displace live coral tissue. At San Andrés island and Islas del Rosario (Colombian Caribbean), in all 145 observed cases of direct contact of the sponges C. aprica, C. caribbaea and C....

Las esponjas excavadoras incrustantes del Caribe Cliona aprica, C. caribbaea, C. delitrix y C. tenuis (Porifera, Hadromerida, Clionaidae) socavan y desplazan agresivamente el tejido coralino. En la isla de San Andrés y en las Islas del Rosario (Caribe colombiano), en todos los 145 casos observados de contacto directo de las esponjas C. aprica, C. c...

The composition of birds in the Chengue Bay mangrove was surveyed between August and October 2001. A total of 50 species of birds was found, and an increase in abundance of migratory species was noted in October, establishing the importance of mangrove as a wintering area or as a roosting area during southward migration. The bird density was greate...