''Clathria prolifera'', commonly known as red beard sponge, is a
species of
sea sponge in the
family Microcionidae. It is native to shallow water habitats in the western Atlantic Ocean from
Prince Edward Island southwards to Florida and Mexico, and possibly Brazil. In the twentieth century it also became established on the west coast of the United States.
Description
''Clathria prolifera'' has an encrusting base that may be up to across but less than thick. It forms bushy masses up to tall of orange or red branches up to thick. These resemble fingers, or may join together to form fan-like or drapery-like folded sheets. The spongy surface is covered with minute pores through which water is drawn into the sponge.
Distribution and habitat
This sponge was
first described by the British naturalist
John Ellis John Ellis may refer to:
Academics
*John Ellis (scrivener) (1698–1791), English political writer
*John Ellis (naturalist) (1710–1776), English botanical illustrator
*John Ellis (physicist, born 1946), British theoretical physicist at CERN
* Jo ...
and the Swedish naturalist
Daniel Solander from
New Jersey in 1786. It is found on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean from
Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island southwards to
Florida, Mexico and Brazil. However, in the southern part of this range it may in fact be a different species.
[ It was first recorded in the eastern Pacific Ocean in ]San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
, California, in the 1940s, in Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay () is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over of surface area Willapa Bay is the ...
, Washington state in 1967, and in Humboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between Sa ...
, California, in 1989.[ It may have arrived in the Pacific as a fouling organism on a vessel's hull or as part of a shipment of oyster spat. It grows on the underside of rocks and boulders in the intertidal and subtidal zones, on docks and quays, and in oyster beds. It is found in estuaries, bays and harbours where it can survive in waters with salinities as low as 15 ppt.][
]
Ecology
Like other sponges, ''Clathria prolifera'' draws in water through its pores and filters out planktonic particles on which it feeds.[
''Clathria prolifera'' is sometimes used as a ]model organism
A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...
. Samples gathered from Chesapeake Bay housed a diverse assemblage of bacteria including members of the phyla Pseudomonadota
Pseudomonadota (synonym Proteobacteria) is a major phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. The renaming of phyla in 2021 remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earlier names of long standing in the literature. The ...
, Bacteroidota
The phylum Bacteroidota (synonym Bacteroidetes) is composed of three large classes of Gram-negative, nonsporeforming, anaerobic or aerobic, and rod-shaped bacteria that are widely distributed in the environment, including in soil, sediments, and ...
, Actinomycetota and "Cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...
" that was different to the bacteria in the surrounding water. After the sponge had been grown in aquaculture
Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
for six months, the composition of the associated bacteria had changed significantly.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3094213
Poecilosclerida
Animals described in 1786