This report summarizes the findings of a recent workshop on the current state of
knowledge regarding sclerosponges and theirpotential application towards the study of global change. In contrast to scleractinian corals, to which sclerosponge research is intimately linked, the study of sclerosponges is very much in its infancy. For example, there have been numerous published studies on calibration aspects of the geochemistry of coral skeletons, including over the past five years 10 studies calibrating Sr/Ca ratios in the skeletons of various species of corals with temperature. In contrast, there has not been one study calibrating the chemical composition of sclerosponges. The workshop, which met in Miami in March 1998, had as its mandate to establish the current state of knowledge regarding the use of sclerosponges for paleoclimatic purposes.

Dr. Brad Rosenheim completed a PhD dissertation on the utiliity of sclerosponges as paleoclimate indicators. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Tulane Univerisity. The following publications resulted from his dissertation. Brad is on the right in this picture taken in 2002.

Rosenheim, B.E. and Swart, P.K. 2007 Nuclear Instruments and Methods B, 259, 274-278.Rosenheim, B.E., Swart, P.K., Eisenhauer, A. 2007 Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 71, 4025-4035.

Rosenheim, R.E, Swart, P.K. and Willenz, P. Calibration of sclerosponges oxygen isotope records to temperature using high-resolution data, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, In Press

We have been recently funded through P2C2 to further investigate sclerosponges. The figure to the left shows a comparison of temperature reconstructions using a new calibration for Sr/Ca and data from several of our sponges compared to published data from the literature. Evidence of anthrpogenic warming is clearly visible.