Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals

Abstract An encrusting sponge, Terpios hoshinota, has the potential to infect all species of stony corals in shallow reefs and killing them. It caused a decline in coral coverage in two south-eastern islands of Taiwan. We proposed two hypotheses to examine how the sponges kill the corals, namely, li...

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Autores principales:	Siang-Tai Syue, Chia-Hsuan Hsu, Keryea Soong
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/91971458889a404f82c582809ec2f629
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:91971458889a404f82c582809ec2f6292021-12-02T14:37:39ZTesting of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals10.1038/s41598-021-87350-42045-2322https://doaj.org/article/91971458889a404f82c582809ec2f6292021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87350-4https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract An encrusting sponge, Terpios hoshinota, has the potential to infect all species of stony corals in shallow reefs and killing them. It caused a decline in coral coverage in two south-eastern islands of Taiwan. We proposed two hypotheses to examine how the sponges kill the corals, namely, light blocking and toxins, and tested by in-situ experiments. The results revealed that both light blocking, sponge toxins, and particularly the combination of both factors were effective at inducing tissue damage in stony corals over a short period. Second, to answer why the sponges killed the corals, we tested two hypotheses, namely, gaining nutrients versus gaining substrates for the sponge. By analyzing the stable isotopes 13C and 15N, as well as exploiting an enrichment experiment, it was possible to determine that only approximately 9.5% of the carbon and 16.9% of the nitrogen in the newly grown sponge tissues originated from the enriched corals underneath. The analysis also revealed that the control corals without isotope enrichment had higher δ13C and δ15N than the control sponges, which was an additional indication that T. hoshinota did not rely heavily on corals for nutrients. Therefore, our results support the hypothesis that the encrusting sponge did not kill corals for food or nutrients, but rather for the substrate.Siang-Tai SyueChia-Hsuan HsuKeryea SoongNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Siang-Tai Syue Chia-Hsuan Hsu Keryea Soong Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
description	Abstract An encrusting sponge, Terpios hoshinota, has the potential to infect all species of stony corals in shallow reefs and killing them. It caused a decline in coral coverage in two south-eastern islands of Taiwan. We proposed two hypotheses to examine how the sponges kill the corals, namely, light blocking and toxins, and tested by in-situ experiments. The results revealed that both light blocking, sponge toxins, and particularly the combination of both factors were effective at inducing tissue damage in stony corals over a short period. Second, to answer why the sponges killed the corals, we tested two hypotheses, namely, gaining nutrients versus gaining substrates for the sponge. By analyzing the stable isotopes 13C and 15N, as well as exploiting an enrichment experiment, it was possible to determine that only approximately 9.5% of the carbon and 16.9% of the nitrogen in the newly grown sponge tissues originated from the enriched corals underneath. The analysis also revealed that the control corals without isotope enrichment had higher δ13C and δ15N than the control sponges, which was an additional indication that T. hoshinota did not rely heavily on corals for nutrients. Therefore, our results support the hypothesis that the encrusting sponge did not kill corals for food or nutrients, but rather for the substrate.
format	article
author	Siang-Tai Syue Chia-Hsuan Hsu Keryea Soong
author_facet	Siang-Tai Syue Chia-Hsuan Hsu Keryea Soong
author_sort	Siang-Tai Syue
title	Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
title_short	Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
title_full	Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
title_fullStr	Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
title_full_unstemmed	Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
title_sort	testing of how and why the terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/91971458889a404f82c582809ec2f629
work_keys_str_mv	AT siangtaisyue testingofhowandwhytheterpioshoshinotaspongekillsstonycorals AT chiahsuanhsu testingofhowandwhytheterpioshoshinotaspongekillsstonycorals AT keryeasoong testingofhowandwhytheterpioshoshinotaspongekillsstonycorals
_version_	1718391019654873088

Testing of how and why the Terpios hoshinota sponge kills stony corals

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