Biology Commons^™

135— Coral-Sponge Interactions On Rocky Point Reef, San Salvador, Bahamas, Michael Harvey, Anna Meichenbaum, Brooke Stickles

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We surveyed the intensity of competition for reef space between sponges and corals at the Rocky Point patch reef adjacent to San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. Our working hypothesis was that, because of a dearth of predators, fast growing, chemically unprotected sponges more likely to be involved in competitive interactions. Results indicate that competition for reef space was widespread, but contrary to our hypothesis no sponge or coral species was disproportionately more involved in these interactions. These results contradict previous studies on Rocky Point reef and in our discussion we propose an explanation for this discrepancy.