Expanded sampling of New Zealand glass sponges (Porifera: Hexactinellida) provides new insights into biodiversity, chemodiversity, and phylogeny of the class

Abstract

Glass sponges (Hexactinellida) constitute important parts of ecosystems on the deep-sea floor worldwide. However, they are still an understudied group in terms of their diversity and systematics. Here, we report on new specimens collected during RV Sonne expedition SO254 to the New Zealand region, which has recently emerged as a biodiversity hotspot for hexactinellids. Examination of the material revealed several species new to science or so far unknown from this area. While formal taxonomic descriptions of a fraction of these were published earlier, we here briefly report on the morphology of the remaining new species and use the collection to greatly expand the molecular phylogeny of the group as established with ribosomal DNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit I markers. In addition, we provide a chemical fingerprinting analysis on a subset of the specimens to investigate if the metabolome of glass sponges contains phylogenetic signal that could be used to supplement morphological and DNA-based approaches.

The genome of the reef-building glass spongeAphrocallistes vastusprovides insights into silica biomineralization

“…This phylogenetic inference of BUSCO orthogroups is consistent with the current hypothesis of hexactinellid relationships (e.g. [ 19 ]). …”

“…All nodes have 100/100 bootstrap support unless otherwise noted. This phylogenetic inference of BUSCO orthogroups is consistent with the current hypothesis of hexactinellid relationships (e.g [19]…”

Dissolved organic matter fluxes and fatty acid composition from shallow-water and deep-water demo- and hexactinellid sponges from New Zealand

“…Globally, the highest sponge biodiversities can be found in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the temperate Northern Atlantic including the Mediterranean Sea, the Central Indo-Pacific, and temperate Australasia (Spalding et al, 2007;Van Soest et al, 2012). Waters around New Zealand, in particular, host a minimum of 1361 different species (Kelly and Sim-Smith, 2023) and several new species have been described in recent years (e.g., (Dohrmann et al, 2023;Reiswig et al, 2021)). Suspension-feeding sponges filter bacterioplankton (de Goeij et al, 2008b;Scheffers et al, 2004;Yahel et al, 2006) and particulate organic carbon (POC) (Hadas et al, 2009;McMurray et al, 2016) out of the water column with pumping rates (ml s -1 ml -1 sponge) of 0.03 (Cinachyrella cavernosa (Lamarck, 1815)) to 17.3 (Aphrocallistes vastus Schulze, 1886; (Dahihande and Thakur, 2019;Leys et al, 2011)) and filtration efficiencies of 23% (Rhopaloeides odorabile Thompson, Murphy, Bergquist & Evans, 1987) to 99% (Sarcotragus spinosulus Schmidt, 1862) for bacteria (Massaro et al, 2012;Trani et al, 2021).…”

“…Globally, the highest sponge biodiversities can be found in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the temperate Northern Atlantic including the Mediterranean Sea, the Central Indo-Pacific, and temperate Australasia (Spalding et al, 2007; Van Soest et al, 2012). Waters around New Zealand, in particular, host a minimum of 1361 different species (Kelly and Sim-Smith, 2023) and several new species have been described in recent years (e.g., (Dohrmann et al, 2023; Reiswig et al, 2021)).…”