Despite their distinction as one of Earth's oldest lifeforms and the key role they play in sustaining coral reef ecosystems, marine sponges are vastly understudied. In a succession of breakthrough ...

Despite their distinction as one of Earth's oldest lifeforms and the key role they play in sustaining coral reef ecosystems, marine sponges are vastly understudied. Kāne'ohe Bay, where HIMB is ...

With too few tritons on the reef, crown-of-thorns starfish populations can explode, jeopardizing the living coral that makes ... Many sea sponges, like anemones, use toxins to repel would-be ...

Researchers in Hawaii used structures that mimic coral reefs to study aquatic life — and they found four new species. The new species are all types of sponges, “grubby little” creatures that ...

Coral reefs typically occur in oligotrophic waters, where tight recycling of energy and nutrients is essential in order to support their high productivity. Sponges are efficient filter feeders that ...

sponges and serpulid tube worms. Sheltering everything from microscopic food to fish for turtles, it was a whole ecosystem in itself.' The giant Turbinaria coral going into Hintze Hall has been in the ...

Coral reefs provide vital habitat for thousands of marine species, and scientists suspect that sponge reefs may do the same. We know so little about the ocean floor, and yet we're only too ready ...