Global diversity of sponges (Porifera).

Soest, Rob W. M. Van; Boury-Esnault, Nicole; Vacelet, Jean; Dohrmann, Martin; Erpenbeck, Dirk ; Voogd, Nicole J. De; Santodomingo, Nadiezhda; Vanhoorne, Bart; Kelly, Michelle und Hooper, John N. A. (2012): Global diversity of sponges (Porifera).
In: PLOS ONE 7(4), e35105

Abstract

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.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Faculties: Geosciences > Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences > Paleontology and Geobiology
• Subjects: 500 Science > 550 Earth sciences and geology; 500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology; 500 Science > 590 Animals (zoology)
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• Language: English