TY - JOUR

T1 - Sponge community of the western Black Sea shallow water caves: diversity and spatial distribution

AU - Ересковский, Александр Вадимович

AU - Kovtun, O.A.

AU - Pronin, Konstantin

AU - Apostolov, Apostol

AU - Erpenbeck, Dirk

AU - Ivanenko, Viatcheslav

N1 - Funding Information: AE acknowledges Christian Marschal, Mediterranean Institute of Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE), Marseille, for his technical help. Fieldwork and dive in Bulgarie was possible thanks to Damian Damyanov. DE thanks Gabriele Büttner, Simone Schätzle and Gert Wörheide, LMU Munich, for support in various aspects of the molecular investigations. We acknowledge also Fernanda Azevedo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Paco Cardenas, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden for help in sponge species determination. Funding Information: Fieldwork and morphological laboratory work were conducted with support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (#15-29-02601 and #15-04-07554, correspondingly); illustrative work and processing of the paper were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (#14-50-00029). Dirk Erpenbeck acknowledges funding by Lehre@LMU. This work also is a contribution to Labex OT-Med (n◦ ANR-11-LABX-0061) and has received funding from Excellence Initiative of Aix-Marseille University— A*MIDEX, a French ‘‘Investissements d’Avenir’’ program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Funding Information: The following grant information was disclosed by the authors: Russian Foundation for Basic Research: #15-29-02601 and #15-04-07554. Russian Science Foundation: #14-50-00029. Lehre@LMU. Labex OT-Med: ANR-11-LABX-0061. Excellence Initiative of Aix-Marseille University—A*MIDEX.

PY - 2018/5/8

Y1 - 2018/5/8

N2 - Marine caves possess unique biocoenotic and ecological characteristics. Sessile benthic species such as sponges associated with cave habitats typically show a marked zonation from the cave entrance towards the end of the cave. We describe three semi-submerged karstic caves of 50 to 83mlength and 936 to 2,291m 3 volume from the poorly explored cavernicolous fauna of North-East Bulgaria. We surveyed sponge diversity and spatial variability. Eight demosponge species were identified based on morphological and molecular data, of which six are known from the adjacent open sea waters of the Black Sea. Two species, Protosuberites denhartogi van Soest & de Kluijver, 2003 and Halichondria bowerbanki Burton, 1930, are reported from the Black Sea for the first time. The spatial sponge distribution inside the caves is in general similar, but shows some differences in species composition and distribution depending on cave relief and hydrodynamics. The species composition of sponges of Bulgarian caves is found to be different from Crimean caves. An updated checklist of the Black Sea sponges is provided.

AB - Marine caves possess unique biocoenotic and ecological characteristics. Sessile benthic species such as sponges associated with cave habitats typically show a marked zonation from the cave entrance towards the end of the cave. We describe three semi-submerged karstic caves of 50 to 83mlength and 936 to 2,291m 3 volume from the poorly explored cavernicolous fauna of North-East Bulgaria. We surveyed sponge diversity and spatial variability. Eight demosponge species were identified based on morphological and molecular data, of which six are known from the adjacent open sea waters of the Black Sea. Two species, Protosuberites denhartogi van Soest & de Kluijver, 2003 and Halichondria bowerbanki Burton, 1930, are reported from the Black Sea for the first time. The spatial sponge distribution inside the caves is in general similar, but shows some differences in species composition and distribution depending on cave relief and hydrodynamics. The species composition of sponges of Bulgarian caves is found to be different from Crimean caves. An updated checklist of the Black Sea sponges is provided.

KW - Bulgaria

KW - Cave-dwelling fauna

KW - Checklist

KW - Extreme environment

KW - Inventory

KW - Karst cave habitat

KW - Marine caves

KW - Porifera

KW - The Black Sea

KW - DYSIDEA-FRAGILIS

KW - RICHNESS

KW - POPULATIONS

KW - MEDITERRANEAN MARINE CAVES

KW - CAVITY-DWELLING SPONGES

KW - VARIABILITY

KW - SESSILE BENTHOS

KW - STEROL COMPOSITION

KW - PORIFERA

KW - SARDINIA

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046682218&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://peerj.com/articles/4596

UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/sponge-community-western-black-sea-shallow-water-caves-diversity-spatial-distribution

U2 - 10.7717/peerj.4596

DO - 10.7717/peerj.4596

M3 - Article

C2 - 29761036

VL - 2018

JO - PeerJ

JF - PeerJ

SN - 2167-8359

IS - 5

M1 - e4596

ER -