Global Diversity of Sponges (Porifera)

With the completion of a single unified classification, the Systema Porifera (SP) and subsequent development of an online species database, the World Porifera Database (WPD), we are now equipped to provide a first comprehensive picture of the global biodiversity of the Porifera. An introductory over...

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Veröffentlicht in:PloS one Jg. 7; H. 4; S. e35105
Hauptverfasser: Van Soest, Rob W. M., Boury-Esnault, Nicole, Vacelet, Jean, Dohrmann, Martin, Erpenbeck, Dirk, De Voogd, Nicole J., Santodomingo, Nadiezhda, Vanhoorne, Bart, Kelly, Michelle, Hooper, John N. A.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: United States Public Library of Science 27.04.2012
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Schlagworte:
Analysis
Animals
Ascidiacea
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Biology
Calcarea
Coasts
Databases, Factual
Demography
Demospongiae
Dictyoceratida
Distribution patterns
Earth Sciences
Irciniidae
Marine animals
Museums
Natural products
Oceans
Oceans and Seas
Paraleucilla
Pattern recognition
Poecilosclerida
Porifera
Porifera - classification
Porifera - genetics
Porifera - physiology
Regional analysis
Review
Scopalina
Species richness
Species Specificity
Sponges
Taxonomy
Tropical environment
Tropical environments
Queensland Australia
Australia
Netherlands
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Zusammenfassung:With the completion of a single unified classification, the Systema Porifera (SP) and subsequent development of an online species database, the World Porifera Database (WPD), we are now equipped to provide a first comprehensive picture of the global biodiversity of the Porifera. An introductory overview of the four classes of the Porifera is followed by a description of the structure of our main source of data for this paper, the WPD. From this we extracted numbers of all 'known' sponges to date: the number of valid Recent sponges is established at 8,553, with the vast majority, 83%, belonging to the class Demospongiae. We also mapped for the first time the species richness of a comprehensive set of marine ecoregions of the world, data also extracted from the WPD. Perhaps not surprisingly, these distributions appear to show a strong bias towards collection and taxonomy efforts. Only when species richness is accumulated into large marine realms does a pattern emerge that is also recognized in many other marine animal groups: high numbers in tropical regions, lesser numbers in the colder parts of the world oceans. Preliminary similarity analysis of a matrix of species and marine ecoregions extracted from the WPD failed to yield a consistent hierarchical pattern of ecoregions into marine provinces. Global sponge diversity information is mostly generated in regional projects and resources: results obtained demonstrate that regional approaches to analytical biogeography are at present more likely to achieve insights into the biogeographic history of sponges than a global perspective, which appears currently too ambitious. We also review information on invasive sponges that might well have some influence on distribution patterns of the future.
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Analyzed the data: NdV NS BV. Wrote the paper: RvS NBE JV MD DE NdV NS BV MK JH. Conceived, contributed introduction, Demospongiae, WPD, diversity, distributions, invasive species, conclusions: RvS. Contributed carnivorous sponges: JV MK. Contributed Hexactinellida: MD. Contributed Homoscleromorpha and Calcarea: NBE. Contributed new developments: DE. Contributed distribution, maps: NS BV. Performed biodiversity analysis: NdV. Contributed regional and online resources, conclusions and perspectives: JH.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0035105