How Do Glass Sponges Use Water?

Glass sponges, also known as the Hyalospongiae from the Hexactinellida class of sponges, can grow to be 1 1/2 feet tall as individual sponges. They're often found in glass sponge reefs, such as the one found near Grays Harbor in Washington. These sponges require food and water to grow, just as humans do, but they don't use water in the same way.

  1. Significance

    • Unlike humans, the marine sponge -- a multicellular animal -- does not have organs. Instead, it utilizes different mechanisms to take in water and food for digestive processing. To obtain nutrients needed for survival, the glass sponge relies upon canals and chambers within its structures as well as on the pores (ostia) contained in its walls (which are surrounded by porocytes -- or doughnut-shaped cells). Water, however, is not needed as a nutrient.

    Food Use

    • While sponges don't need water as a nutrient, water drawn into the sponge through the pore openings, which are contained in the outer shell (or ectoderm) of the sponge, carries in plankton, larvae and other food particles to the sponge. These food particles, which are delivered through water uptake, are used as nutrients for the sponge. They are moved from the outer shell (the ectoderm) into the inner jelly layer, known as the endoderm. As water is propelled through a comb-like structure within, it is then funneled back out of the sponge, with the comb catching and moving the food particles into the sponge cells for use.

    Marine Life Use and Reproduction

    • Glass sponges use water as their home environment, giving them proximity to the animal life they need to survive. Habitation in water, in turn, also enables glass sponges to create reefs that can support and offer protection for other marine life, such as rockfish and squat lobsters, according to the University of Washington.

    Benefits to Humans

    • Humans can benefit in two ways from glass sponges, with water playing a role to some degree in each scenario. Due to the glass sponge absorbing and filtering large quantities of water to receive food, this marine animal -- a type of filter feeder -- exhibits some of the earliest environmental signs that something in the water is not as it should be. Second, due the glass sponge's stationary position within the water, it produces a toxic chemical to ward off other marine predators. This chemical has potential to aid humans in fighting such diseases as AIDS, cancer and cystic fibrosis, according to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.