The most common sponges on the Great Barrier Reef seabed, Australia, include species new to science (Phylum Porifera)

Abstract

We describe two new species amongst the most common sponges living on the seabed (inter-reef) of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) collected during a multi-agency survey (GBR Seabed Biodiversity Project 2003–2006) of the shelf benthic biota using a trawl and dredge at 1254 sites. More than 1,200 sponge morphospecies (operational taxonomic units or OTUs) were recognised, many of which are potentially new species. This paper describes five of the most common sponges, two of which are new to science, Dercitus xanthus sp. nov. and Paracornulum fistulosum sp. nov. Taxonomic revisions of the three other most common species (Coscinoderma nardorus (Lendenfeld, 1886), Spheciospongia vagabunda (Ridley, 1884) and Xenospongia patelliformis Gray, 1858), reveal new characters not previously recorded. Extensive distribution maps are provided for these species within the GBR Marine Park. Analysis of the physical data associated with the biota revealed these species had strong preference for sand and carbonate sediments. As colonisers of the soft seabed these most prevalent species provide important habitat stabilisation, enabling succession communities to more readily establish on the seabed. This wide-scale study along the length and breadth of the GBR provides a concise and encompassing view of the distribution and diversity of the seabed benthos, and has significant implications for the conservation and management of the GBR World Heritage Area.

Sponge gardens of Ningaloo Reef (Carnarvon Shelf, Western Australia) are biodiversity hotspots

“…As in many previous studies in the Indo-Pacific (e.g. de Voogd et al, 2009;Sutcliffe et al, 2010) sponges of the CERF collection were not fully described, due to the scope and funding of the present investigation. While generating total species counts and comparisons between collections are possible (Hooper & Ekins, 2004), new species can remain unrecognised or at least unavailable to the public.…”

“…Free-living massive bioeroding sponges are usually included in biodiversity surveys (e.g. de Voogd & Cleary, 2008;Sutcliffe et al, 2010), but encrusting or papillate forms are often ignored (see studies conducted in Indonesia summarised in Table 4). Ignoring the papillate and fistulose bioeroding sponges from the Carnarvon Shelf would have meant 14 putative new species were not detected, which represent over 5% of the voucher collection.…”

Trace metal concentrations in the tropical sponge Spheciospongia vagabunda at a sewage outfall: synchrotron X-ray imaging reveals the micron-scale distribution of accumulated metals

“…The observed species are common throughout Darwin Harbour including the selected reference sites (Alvarez, unpublished data). Spheciospongia vagabunda (Ridley, 1884) is a very common species through the Indo-Pacific, with known records from Indian Ocean, northern Australia Torres Strait, Great Barrier Reef, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Central Pacific Ocean (Sutcliffe et al, 2010). Specimens from Darwin Harbour are generally thickly encrusting, following the shape of substrate and semi-buried, with short and irregular chimney like projections (2-5 cm long by 1-2 cm thick) protruding from the base of the sponge.…”

Diversity and distribution of the bioactive actinobacterial genus Salinispora from sponges along the Great Barrier Reef

“…Sponges of the species Dercitus xanthus Sutcliffe, Hooper andPitcher, 2010, Cinachyrella australiensis (Carter, 1886) and Hyattella intestinalis (Lamarck, 1814) were used for the isolation of Salinispora. These sponge species were selected as they are evenly distributed along the length of the GBR and represent different bioforms with varying types of habitat.…”

“…These sponge species were selected as they are evenly distributed along the length of the GBR and represent different bioforms with varying types of habitat. The 97 sponge specimens used in this study were collected during the Great Barrier Reef Seabed Diversity (Pitcher et al 2007a;Sutcliffe et al 2010) and Torres Straits Seabed Diversity projects (Pitcher et al 2007b(Pitcher et al ), between 2003(Pitcher et al and 2006. These projects collected fauna from the inter-reef seabed (benthic regions between coral reefs) along the length of the GBR and Torres Straits.…”