Among these developments, a debate has emerged about the relative effects of bottom-up (food availability) and top-down (predation) control on the community of sponges on Caribbean fore-reefs. New estimates of water column processing by sponge pumping activities combined with discoveries related to carbon and nutrient cycling have led to novel hypotheses about the role of sponges in reef ecosystem function. Interest in the ecology of sponges on coral reefs has grown in recent years with mounting evidence that sponges are becoming dominant members of reef communities, particularly in the Caribbean. top-down control of sponges on Caribbean fore-reefs: what’s old, what’s new, and future directions. Cite this article Pawlik JR, Loh T, McMurray SE. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. Licence This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. 2 Quest University Canada, Squamish, BC, Canada DOI 10.7717/peerj.4343 Published Accepted Received Academic Editor Robert Toonen Subject Areas Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Marine Biology, Biological Oceanography Keywords Coral reefs, Ecology, Food limitation, Predation, DOC DOM, Sponge-loop, Vicious circle, Hawksbill turtles, Historical ecology, Ecosystem function Copyright © 2018 Pawlik et al.
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