Paper Reviewed
Biggerstaff, A., Smith, D.J., Jompa, J. and Bell, J.J. 2015. Photoacclimation supports environmental tolerance of a sponge to turbid low-light conditions. Coral Reefs 34: 1049-1061.

In their intriguing study, Biggerstaff et al. (2015) used in situ pulse amplitude-modulated (PAM) fluorometry to determine whether a certain species of sponge (Lamellodysidea herbacea) containing a population of the photosynthetic cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria spongeliae) could tolerate transplantation from a high-light, clear and coral-dominated environment to a low-light, turbid and sponge-dominated environment. And what did they learn from this experiment?

The four researchers report that "Lamellodysidea herbacea transplanted from high- to low-light conditions appeared to have photo-acclimated within five days with no significant effect of the lowered light level on survival." And they speculate that "this ability of L. herbacea to photo-acclimate to rapid and extreme changes in light availability may be one of the factors contributing to their survival on more turbid reef sites." In addition, they further note that "the continued survival of the sponge in these low-light environments seems likely to be supported by the relationship with its photosymbionts," i.e. the photosynthetic cyanobacteria Oscillatoria spongeliae.