By Lindsay Key '11MFA

 

A research article by recent marine science master's graduate Steve McMurray and marine biology professor Joe Pawlik was highlighted in the May 7, 2009 issue of Nature-- an international weekly journal of science.

 

"A Novel Technique for the Reattachment of Large Coral Reef Sponges" examines how McMurray and Pawlik reattached 20 barrel sponges to reefs off the coast of Florida after they became dislodged from storms, fishing lines, ship groundings, and other significant traumas. Read about how they did it in the Nature article or the original article in Restoration Ecology.

 

"It was pretty exciting because no one has ever documented this before," McMurray said. "Everyone always thinks that if a 100-year-old sponge is dislodged, it becomes tumbleweed and is swept away in the current, scoured by sand, and eventually dies."

 

In fact, McMurray and Pawlik weren't expected to discover a method for reattachment. They traveled to the Florida Keys in 2005 to test a hypothesis that high water temperature bleaches the color of barrel sponges, which are normally brown but take on a pale reddish-brown hue during warmer seasons. After collecting 40 loose sponges and anchoring them in shallow water for monitoring, they discovered that the sponges were reattaching to the reefs-- a process that is rarely possible naturally.

 

The seemingly successful reattachment technique is crucial to the conservation of sponges and the reefs they inhabit. Barrel sponges are important to the health of a coral reef because they filter tons of water over the reef and provide a three dimensional structure to serve as a habitat for fish. Pawlik and his lab have been studying barrel sponges since 1996, documenting their mortality, recruitment, and growth rate. They've discovered that the oil drum- sized species is one of the longest living animals in the world, surviving anywhere between 100 and 2,000 years.

 

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Sponge reattachment technique.Photo courtesy of Steve McMurray.