Chicken kidney sponge could be 'outstanding' at cleaning up polluted ports
"'Here we show that some sponge species have exceptional potential for use in the restoration of degraded harbor habitats,' said Dr. Manuel Maldonado, group leader at the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes in Girona, Spain. "'In our new study in Frontiers in Marine Science, we tested five species, and among them the chicken liver sponge Chondrosia reniformis demonstrated an outstanding ability to adapt to these challenging conditions and even thrive.'"
"Sponges are true ecosystem engineers. Sponge populations filter thousands of liters of seawater daily, removing heavy metals, pathogenic bacteria, viruses and organic particles while recycling nutrients through their symbiotic microbes. This doesn't just improve water quality but also delivers energy and organic matter to the food web. Sponges also provide shelter for worms, crustaceans and juvenile fish."
"All individuals of C. crambe, S. scalaris and I. oros gradually shrank in size and lingered between 20 and 165 days before dying. In contrast, C. reniformis thrived and even reproduced asexually: 91.7% of the original animals survived in the port throughout the entire monitoring period of 455 days."
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci., 29 July 2026
Sec. Marine Conservation and Sustainability
Volume 13 - 2026 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2026.1875098
In search of resilient sponges as candidate habitat engineers for the renaturalization of polluted harbor environments
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2026.1875098/full
