Human impact on sponges is largely indirect. For many years, the harvesting of sponges by humans presented a risk, but now, synthetic materials are used to make household sponges, and that practice is far less common.
Human impacts on the ocean have impacted sponge habitats. Humans have increased the carbon dioxide in the air, and as a result are acidifying the ocean. By making the ocean more acidic, it is easier for certain types of sponges to overrun coral that now have a weaker exoskeleton that has been broken down by the acid. Similarly, overfishing has made it easier for sponges to survive in certain areas of the ocean, and in turn made it easier for them to overrun coral. Therefore, humans have allowed sponges to thrive at the expense of neighboring coral.
Alternatively, the rising temperatures of the ocean present risks for sponges. Sponges share a symbiotic relationship with microbes, and the increase of the ocean temperature over the next one hundred years threatens to break down that symbiotic relationship and put sponges at risk.
Human impacts on the ocean have impacted sponge habitats. Humans have increased the carbon dioxide in the air, and as a result are acidifying the ocean. By making the ocean more acidic, it is easier for certain types of sponges to overrun coral that now have a weaker exoskeleton that has been broken down by the acid. Similarly, overfishing has made it easier for sponges to survive in certain areas of the ocean, and in turn made it easier for them to overrun coral. Therefore, humans have allowed sponges to thrive at the expense of neighboring coral.
Alternatively, the rising temperatures of the ocean present risks for sponges. Sponges share a symbiotic relationship with microbes, and the increase of the ocean temperature over the next one hundred years threatens to break down that symbiotic relationship and put sponges at risk.