We report the first record of Spongilla cenota occurrence among drainages of the Edwards Plateau, a large karst area within the western gulf slope drainages of central Texas, and provide the first quantitative habitat description for this species. Spongilla cenota was common in the two rivers of the Edwards Plateau, occurring within 23% of the quadrats surveyed in the Devils River and 31% of the quadrats surveyed in the Llano River. Among multivariate gradients, S. cenota was positively associated with moderate current velocities and coarser substrates and negatively associated with vegetation. The majority (74%) of the quadrats with S. cenota had boulder or bedrock substrates with the remaining sponges attached to aquatic macrophytes and cobble substrate. Among univariate gradients, S. cenota were observed at water depths from 0.5 to 2.5 m and current velocities from 0.1 to 0.6 m/s. Occurrence and abundance of S. cenota potentially provides a novel bioindicator of a sound ecological environment within streams of the Edwards Plateau.
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1 December 2014
First record and habitat associations of Spongilla cenota (Class Demospongiae) within streams of the Edwards Plateau, Texas, USA
Harlan T. Nichols,
Timothy H. Bonner
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The Southwestern Naturalist
Vol. 59 • No. 4
December 2014
Vol. 59 • No. 4
December 2014