Regional Commercial Sponge Extinctions in the West Indies: Are Recent Climatic Changes Responsible? |
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| Authors: | Vance P Vicente |
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| Institution: | Marine Ecology Division, Center for Energy and Environment Research, College Station, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 00708 |
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| Abstract: | Abstract. Long-term changes in the distributional patterns of commercial sponges ( Spongia spp. and Hippospongia spp.) within the West Indian Region indicates that: 1) commercial sponges had a widespread distribution throughout the whole West Indian Region and were ubiquitous in very shallow water until about the first half of the present century; 2) they were fished commercially not only in the traditional northern Caribbean sites (Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas) but also in the Greater ( e. g. , Hispaniola, Jamaica) and Lesser Antilles; and 3) they became extinct throughout most of the Lesser Antilles ( e. g. , Puerto Rico, Vieques, St. Thomas) sometime during the first half of this century. Mortalities of spongiids within the Antilles were found to differ from other marine mortalities in that: 1) species disappeared from a large region; 2) species vanished from different habitats and depths; and 3) natural populations never recovered. Species richness patterns suggest that commercial sponge genera ( Spongia and Hippospongia ) evolved under slightly cooler elimatic conditions than those found at present, and that these extinctions occurred as a direct or indirect effect of positive thermal anomalies in sea surface and atmospheric temperatures between 1900–1950. The concept that species diversity is stable on a regional scale is questioned. |
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| Keywords: | Spongia Hippospongia Caribbean climate temperature sponges mortality extinction ecology disturbances |
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