Alvarez, F.

Baas Becking, L.M.G.

Bailly, N.

Boury-Esnault, N.

Boxshall, G.A.

Decock, W.

Dekeyzer, S.

Gerovasileiou, V.

Humphreys, W.F.

Iliffe, T.M.

Jaume, D.

Martínez, A.

Muricy, G.

Perez, T.

van Hengstum, P.J.

Vandepitte, L.

Vanhoorne, B.

Voultsiadou, E.

Yamasaki, H.

English

Open Marine Archive

214 215
10th World Sponge Conference Posters Ecology
The availability of map resources for the distribution, degradation status and threats to 
sponge assemblages in the European Seas – initial baselines in the MERCES project 
Vasilis Gerovasileiou1, Thanos Dailianis1, Nadia Papadopoulou1, Katerina Sevastou1, Christopher J. 
Smith1, Teresa Amaro2, Trine Bekkby3, Meri Bilan4, Christoffer Boström5, Emma Cebrian6, Carlo 
Cerrano2, Roberto Danovaro2, Dario Fiorentino7, Simonetta Fraschetti8, Karine Gagnon5, Cristina 
Gambi2, Anthony Grehan9, Bernat Hereu10, Silvija Kipson11, Jonne Kotta12, Cristina Linares10, 
Martina Milanese13, Telmo Morato4, Henn Ojaveer12, Helen Orav-Kotta12, Antonio Sarà13, Rachael 
Scrimgeour14, İnci Tüney Kızılkaya15, Elizabeth Grace Tunka- Eronat15 
1 Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece, vgerovas@hcmr.gr; 2 Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy; 3 Norwegian 
Institute for Water Research, Norway; 4 Instituto do Mar Centro da Universidade dos Açores, Portugal; 5 Åbo Akademi University, 
Finland; 6 Institut d’Ecologia Aquàtica, Universitat de Girona, Spain; 7 Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany; 8 Consorzio Nazionale 
Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare, Italy; 9 National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland; 10
University of Barcelona, Spain, 11 Faculty of Science - University of Zagreb, Croatia; 12 University of
Tartu, Estonia; 13 Studio Associato GAIA, Italy; 14 UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, United
Kingdom; 15 Mediterranean Conservation Society, Turkey
Within the MERCES project (http://www.merces-project.eu/), one of the first objectives is to catalogue exist-
ing and available maps for marine habitats, along with their degradation status and restoration potential in 
the European Seas. In order to reach this objective, an extensive review has been performed and a catalogue 
compiled with mapping sources for (a) marine habitats, (b) degraded marine habitats, and (c) pressures and 
mechanisms that could potentially drive key-habitat changes in them. In its current form, the MERCES WP1 
catalogue includes a total of approximately 900 entries with meta-data regarding various marine habitats, as-
semblages and marine areas. These entries include published records, web resources, and grey literature (i.e. 
project reports, technical documents, and unpublished data). Information about sponge assemblages covers 
only 6% of the catalogue’s entries highlighting a potential gap in relevant broad- scale mapping initiatives. 
In half of the available sources (52%), sponge assemblages were found together with those of anthozoans 
(e.g. cold water corals, coral gardens, gorgonian forests), suggesting that these two biological features of-
ten co-exist and/or are treated together in broad-scale mapping initiatives. Available mapping sources for 
sponge assemblages mainly concern the deep-sea (53%) and sublittoral hard substrate habitats (31%) of the 
North-East Atlantic Ocean (55%) and the Mediterranean Sea (38%). More specifically, the main habitats/as-
semblages identified were deep-sea sponge aggregations and mixed coral/sponge fields, sublittoral rocky and 
coralligenous beds. Several information sources underline a significant – though not quantified – decline in 
deep sponge fields, along with recorded mortality events for the shallow ones. The most frequently highlighted 
threats for these assemblages are: bottom trawling, climate change, dumping, land-based activities, harvest-
ing, minerals exploration, scientific research, and marine litter. Interestingly, most of the catalogue entries 
(71%) were derived from grey literature, indicating a valuable – yet often overlooked – source of information.
This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro-
gramme under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES: Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European 
Seas).
World Register of marine Cave Species (WoRCS): a tool for evaluating sponge diversity 
in marine caves and anchialine systems of the world 
Vasilis Gerovasileiou1, Alejandro Martínez2, Leontine E. Becking3, 4, Guilherme Muricy5, Fernando 
Álvarez6, Geoff Boxshall7, William F. Humphreys8, Damià Jaume9, Peter J. van Hengstum10, Hiroshi 
Yamasaki11, Nicole Boury-Esnault12, Thierry Perez12, Eleni Voultsiadou13, Stefanie Dekeyzer14, Wim 
Decock14, Bart Vanhoorne14, Leen Vandepitte14, Nicolas Bailly1, 15, Thomas M. Iliffe10 
1 Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece, vgerovas@hcmr.gr;2 CNR-ISE, Italy; 3 Marine Animal Ecology, Animal Science 
Group, Wageningen University, Netherlands; 4 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands; 5 Departamento de Invertebrados, Mu-
seu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 6 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico; 7 Depart-
ment of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, UK; 8 Department of Terrestrial Zoology, Western Australian Museum, Australia; 
9 IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Spain; 10 Texas A&M University at Galveston, USA; 11 
Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity; Museum für Naturkunde, Germany; 12 IMBE-UMR7263 CNRS, Universite´ d’Aix-
Marseille, Station Marine d’Endoume, France; 13 School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; 14 Flanders 
Marine Institute/Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), Belgium; 15 FishBase Information and Research Group, Philippines
As reservoirs of sponge diversity, marine caves have attracted the interest of sponge researchers from around 
the world at an early stage. The need to compile all the existing largely scattered information on the sponge 
diversity of this unique ecosystem has been recently recognized and some regional overviews came out. The 
World Register of marine Cave Species – WoRCS (www.marinespecies.org/worcs), a Thematic Species Data-
base of the World Register of Marine Species – WoRMS, offers a valuable resource for an integrated approach 
to this issue. The aim of WoRCS is to create a comprehensive taxonomic and ecological database of species 
known from marine caves and anchialine environments worldwide. Within this thematic database, the cave-
related information is managed by the WoRCS thematic editors in collaboration with the taxonomic editors of 
WoRMS, who manage the taxonomic content. The database is an online open source and includes information 
on the biology, ecology, and distribution of all species. Data on sponge distribution in marine caves are linked 
to the Gazetteer of the Marine and Anchialine Systems of the World, which is part of the Marine Regions 
information system and includes geographical and geological information for all study areas. Currently, the 
database includes 1629 species belonging to 19 phyla as well as 573 relevant literature sources. With 423 ac-
cepted species, Porifera is the richest in species phylum of sessile metazoans in the database, covering 26% 
of the existing records. Demosponges predominate with 365 species, followed by 33 calcareans, 24 homo-
scleromorphs and 1 hexactinellid. In their attempt to catalogue the world sponge diversity in marine caves, 
the WoRCS thematic editors and collaborators have initiated an exhaustive overview of all sources, including 
unpublished data from their expeditions. Herein the followed methodology, available sources and tools along 
with preliminary results of this initiative are presented. The main goal of this initiative is to describe distribu-
tion patterns in this fragmented ecosystem, to highlight unique elements of sponge diversity and provide a 
baseline for future conservation actions.
Sponge biodiversity of the shallow sublittoral Antarctic Peninsula 
 Claire Goodwin 1, Katharine Hendry2, Jade Berman3 
1 Atlantic Reference Centre, Huntsman Marine Science Centre, St Andrews, NB, Canada claire.goodwin@huntsmanmarine.ca
2 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK
3Ulster Wildlife Trust, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Currently the diversity and abundance of sponges on shallow Antarctic reefs is likely to have been signifi-
cantly underestimated (Cardenas et al. 2016). The difficulty of identifying sponges in situ has led to them be-
ing recorded simply as ‘Porifera’ in many studies, despite often being the dominant phylum on Antarctic hard 
substrates. We collected sponge specimens from 22 sites (0-24m depth) spanning from King George Island, 
South Shetland Islands (62°12.185’S) to Jenny Island, Marguerite Bay (67°43.325’S). Sampling was under-
taken by SCUBA which enabled study of the large boulders and bedrock walls, these tend to be particularly 
sponge rich and unlikely be well sampled by remote methods. The survey was carried out from a 26.5m ves-
sel which enabled access to sites inaccessible to larger vessels; these included little studied areas such as the 
Biscoe Islands. In total 309 specimens were collected encompassing 24 species of which four were new to 
science. Records of the appearance of sponge were obtained, including some which have not previously been 


World Register of marine Cave Species (WoRCS): a tool for evaluating sponge diversity in marine caves and anchialine systems of the world

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World Register of marine Cave Species (WoRCS): a tool for evaluating sponge diversity in marine caves and anchialine systems of the world

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