Substrate Effects on the Bioeroding Demosponge Cliona orientalis.2. Substrate Colonisation and Tissue Growth

Abstract Sponge bioerosion is a result of tissue expansion of endolithic sponges in calcium carbonate substrates. The efficiency of erosion by the sponges can be affected by substrate features, which are thus also likely to influence the way in which the sponge will grow. A field experiment was conducted, in which sponge tissue was grafted to biogenic blocks cut from the corals Goniopora tenuidens, massive Porites sp., Astreopora listeri, Favites halicora, Favia pallida, Goniastrea retiformis and Cyphastrea serailia, and the clam Tridacna squamosa, to investigate colonisation capabilities and growth patterns of Cliona orientalis Thiele, 1900 after 9 months of the experiment. C. orientalis is not substrate‐specific. It invaded > 90 % of the different substrate blocks and penetrated them to varying depths, but usually only down to slightly more than 1 cm. Lateral penetration clearly exceeded depth penetration. Enlargement of surface area versus restricted depth penetration benefits the symbiotic zooxanthellae located in the sponge's surface. Structural irregularities and barriers such as coral dissepiments temporarily deflected the direction of tissue growth and created characteristic tissue patch patterns in different substrates. Tissue growth may be more pronounced in substrates of higher density and lower pore volume, but evidence was only slight. Protection against predation is better in denser materials, which may stimulate the sponge's tissue growth especially in shallower substrate depth. In more porous substrates, favoured by grazers and corallivores, relatively more tissue was located in deeper layers.