Meeting Abstract
Sally Woodin bestowed on me a need to see a clear and direct connection between the methods employed in an ecological endeavor and the motivating questions. Mismatch between methods and motivating questions has become especially jarring in the study of chemical defenses of marine invertebrates. Controlled laboratory experiments, so readily accomplished with insects and their host plants, tend to fail with marine organisms and their predators, as confinement often results in death or unnatural behavior. This problem is particularly acute for tropical sponges, and thus a variety of techniques have been developed for learning about the effectiveness of their chemical defenses, including assays for toxicity and palatability, evaluation of gut contents, and video monitoring of sponges placed in unusual settings. Field observations, over the last 35 years, of consumption or rejection of Caribbean sponges by a variety of piscine and invertebrate predators provide perspective on interactions between sponges and spongivores; and clear indications of how to apply common sense in matching methods of investigation to the questions asked.
