Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-02T08:09:04.201Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seasonal Variations of Spicule Size in Hymeniacidon Perleve

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. R. Stone
A. R. Stone
Affiliation:
Biological Laboratories, The Polytechnic, London, W. I.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Jørgensen (1944) showed that young specimens of the siliceous freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris L. obtained their skeletal silica from the water and demonstrated that, under experimental conditions, a relationship existed between the size of the microscleric spicules produced and the concentration of dissolved silicate in the culture medium. The thickness of the microscleres increased with increasing concentration of dissolved silicate in the medium but no changes were detected in the lengths of the microscleres or in the size of the megascleres. Prior to this report Jewell (1935) showed that specimens of 5. lacustris with normal spiculation were rarely found in natural waters with a silicate content below 0.005 to 0.01 mm Si02. Hartman (1958) suggested that the greater thickness of siliceous spicules found in specimens of Haliclona caniculata Hartman collected in winter from New England shores, compared with spicules from summer-collected specimens, might reflect the increased concentration of dissolved silicate in the sea water during the winter months. Similar effects have been demonstrated experimentally in calcareous sponges: Maas (1906) showed that calcareous sponge larvae reared in calcium-free water produced no mineral spicules but organic ‘spiculoids’ of similar form. A relationship between spicule size and environmental silicate has not, in the past, been conclusively demonstrated for any siliceous sponge in field conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , May 1970 , pp. 343 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Hartman, W. D., 1958. Natural history of the marine sponges of southern New England. Bull. Peabody Mus. nat. Hist., Vol. 12, pp. 1–155.Google Scholar
Hendey, N. I., 1951. Littoral diatoms of Chichester Harbour with special reference to fouling. Jl R. rnicrosc. Soc., Vol. 71, pp. 1–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hentschel, E., 1929. Die Kiesel- und Hornschwamme des Nordlichen Eismeeres. Fauna arct., Vol. 5, pp. 859–1042.Google Scholar
Jewell, M. E., 1935. An ecological study of the fresh water sponges of northern Wisconsin. Ecol. Monogr., Vol. 5, pp. 461–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, W. C., 1959. Spicule growth rates in Leucosolenia variabilis. Jl microsc. Set., Vol. 100, pp. 557–70.Google Scholar
Jones, W. C., 1964. Photographic records of living oscular tubes of Leucosolenia variabilis. II. Spicule growth, form and displacement. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 44, pp. 311–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jørgensen, C. B., 1944. On the spicule formation of Spongilla lacustris L. I. The dependence of the spicule formation on the content of the dissolved and solid silicic acid of the milieu. Biol. Meddr., Bd. 19, pp. 1–45.Google Scholar
Maas, O., 1906. Über die Einwirkung karbonatfreier und kalkfreier Salzlösungen auf erwachsene Kalkschwämme und auf Entwicklungsstadien derselben. Arch. EntwMech. Org., Bd. 22, pp. 581–602.Google Scholar
Raymont, J. E. G., 1963. Plankton and Productivity in the Oceans. 660 pp. London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Stubbings, H. G. & Houghton, D. R., 1964. The ecology of Chichester Harbour, southern England, with special reference to some fouling species. Int. Revue ges. Hydrobiol. Hydrogr., Vol. 49, pp. 233–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar