Data For Renfro-Price et al Bleaching and Resilience in Coral Reef Sponges During the Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event

This study also quantified non-visible symbiont declines via loss of chlorophyll <i>a</i> from the tissue of cyanobacteria-harboring species, <i>Aplysina cauliformis</i>, in sponges held in an <i>in situ</i> nursery in Florida, USA. Water temperature data provided were sourced from I.CARE (icareaboutcoral.org) and publicly accessible databases (MarineGEO Bocas del Toro Observatory at the Bocas del Toro Research Station, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama; Aqualink monitoring network; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Data Buoy Center Station KYWF1 in Key West, Florida).

Results showed sub-lethal effects of bleaching in both species. At present these symbiont-bearing sponges, while not resistant to heat stress, do exhibit resilience. However, we caution that longer, more frequent, or more severe future marine heat waves may push the sub-lethal effects of bleaching found in this study over a threshold into physiological damage and mortality that would cause population declines.</p>