Sponge Feeding Video: A scientist sampling water from a sponge in Lake Baikal, Siberia; a factory for symbionts!
Sponge Feeding Video of a scientist sampling water from a chamber containing a sponge in Lake Baikal, Siberia. As the sponge continues to pump water through its aquiferous system, the concentration of small particles, the picoplankton, should drop. Surprisingly, Dr. Patterson and colleagues found that for some kinds of cells the concentration actually increased! The sponges of Lake Baikal harbor symbionts, like many on a coral reef, and it appears that the inside of the sponge was a ‘factory’ of sorts for these microbes.
