Emily McGrath

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Marine Ecologist at Cawthron Institute

Sponges are a major component of benthic ecosystems across the world and fulfil a number of important functional roles. However, despite their importance, there have been few attempts to compare sponge assemblage structure and ecological functions across large spatial scales. In this review, we examine commonalities and differences between shallow...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

This report presents the environmental monitoring results for the Ngamahau Bay (NGA) salmon farm located in Tory Channel (consent number U140296). The NGA farm was established in November 2015, making this the fourth annual monitoring report for this site. Data presented include an assessment of depositional effects on soft-sediment habitats, effec...

This report presents the environmental monitoring results for the Kopaua (KOP) salmon farm located in Pelorus Sound (consent number U160675). The KOP farm was established in May 2016, making this the third annual monitoring report for this site. Data presented include an assessment of depositional effects on soft-sediment habitats and effects on th...

This report presents the environmental monitoring results for the Waitata Reach (WTA) salmon farm located in Pelorus Sound (consent number U140294). The WTA farm was established in December 2015, making this the third annual monitoring report for this site. Data presented include an assessment of depositional effects on soft-sediment habitats and e...

Abstract Describing life history dynamics of functionally important species is critical for successful management. Barrel sponges (Xestospongia spp.) fill ecologically important roles on coral reefs due to their large size and water column interactions. Studies of Caribbean X. muta suggest they may be up to 1000 s of years old. However, nothing is...

Coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific are among the most diverse in the world but like reefs globally, they remain vulnerable to a multitude of stressors, including coastal development and the resultant sedimentation. In the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia, some degraded reefs are characterised by high levels of sedimentation and low coral c...

There are large-scale processes that are impacting marine communities across the world at a range of temporal scales. In this chapter, we consider the potential impacts of short-term, large-scale, climate processes on sponges with a major focus on temperature variation. We examined available case studies from across the world to assess the physiolo...

Monitoring has become a critical component of managing marine environments world-wide in the face of local and global anthropogenic impacts. Typically the focus of most monitoring programmes has been to quantify temporal and spatial variation in the abundance of organisms, along with the diversity and composition of biological communities to assess...

Details of the search criteria (Appendix S1), a list of all the papers identified during our searches for marine (Appendix S1) and freshwater (Appendix S3) sponges, and a list of endangered sponges from Northern Ireland (Appendix S4)

Sponges are important for maintaining ecosystem function and integrity of marine and freshwater benthic communities worldwide. Despite this, there has been no assessment of their current global conservation status. We assessed their status, accounting for the distribution of research effort; patterns of temporal variation in sponge populations and...