Klaus Ruetzler

Research Biologist; Director, Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems Program (CCRE)

National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20560-0163

ruetzler.klaus@nmnh.si.edu

Research Interests

Biology of sponges and sponge symbionts and importance of these organisms in reef and mangrove communities.

Current Research Projects

Diversity, morphology, and ecology of Caribbean mangrove sponges. Environmental parameters affecting sponge larval ecology, settlement, competition, and successions in a Caribbean mangrove ecosystem.
Effects of encrusting and excavating sponges on stressed coral reefs.

Recent Publications

Rützler, K 1995: Low-tide exposure of sponges in a Caribbean mangrove community. Marine Ecology, 16: 165-179

Rützler, K. and I.C. Feller, 1996: Caribbean mangrove swamps. Scientific American 274 (3): 94–99.

Rützler, K. and C. Feller, 1999: Mangrove Swamp Communities An Approach in Belize. Pages 39–49 in A.

Yanez-Arancibia and A.L. Lara-Domínguez (eds.), Mangrove Ecosystems in Tropical America. UICN/NORMA Costa Rica; NOOA/NMFS Silver Spring, MD, USA.

Rützler, K., M. C. Diaz, R.W.M. van Soest, S. Zea, K. P. Smith, B. Alvarez, and J. Wulff, 2000: Diversity of sponge fauna in mangrove ponds, Pelican Cays, Belize. Pp. 228–248 in I.G. Macintyre and K. Rützler (eds.), Natural History of the Pelican Cays, Belize. Atoll Research Bulletin, Nos. 466–480 (March 2000).

Rützler, K. (2001). Exploring Neptune’s gardens: From landlubber to reef biologist. Atoll Res. Bull. 494: 176–197.

Rützler, K. (2002). Impact of crustose clionid sponges on Caribbean reef corals. Acta Geol. Hispanica 37: 61–72.

Rützler, K. (2002). Family Clionaidae D’Orbigny, 1851 (Order Hadromerida). In Systema Porifera (J.N.A. Hopper & R.W.M. van Soest, eds.), pp. 173–185. Kluver Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.

Rützler, K., RWM van Soest & B. Alvarez (2003). Svenzea zeai, a Caribbean reef sponge with a giant larva, and Scopalina ruetzleri: a comparative fine-structural approach to classification
(Demospongiae, Halichondrida, Dictyonellidae). Invertebrate Biology 122 (in press).

Rützler, K. (2003). Sponges on coral reefs: a community shaped by competitive cooperation. Boll. Mus. Ist. Biol. Univ. Genova (in press).