1. Exploring depth‐related patterns of sponge diversity and abundance in marginal reefs
- Author
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Juliano Morais, Igor L. Cordeiro, Aline P. M. Medeiros, George G. Santos, and Bráulio A. Santos
- Subjects
beta diversity ,depth gradient ,Hill numbers ,marginal reef ,mesophotic habitat ,porifera ,Ecology ,QH540-549.5 - Abstract
Abstract Marine sponges play a vital role in the reef's benthic community; however, understanding how their diversity and abundance vary with depth is a major challenge, especially on marginal reefs in areas deeper than 30 m. To help bridge this gap, we used underwater videos at 24 locations between 2‐ and 62‐meter depths on a marginal reef system in the Southwestern Atlantic to investigate the effect of depth on the sponge metacommunity. Specifically, we quantified the abundance, density, and taxonomic composition of sponge communities, and decomposed their gamma (γ) diversity into alpha (α) and beta (β) components. We also assessed whether beta diversity was driven by species replacement (turnover) or by nesting of local communities (nestedness). We identified 2020 marine sponge individuals, which belong to 36 species and 24 genera. As expected, deep areas (i.e., those greater than 30 m) presented greater sponge abundance and more than eightfold the number of sponges per square meter compared to shallow areas. About 50% of the species that occurred in shallow areas (
- Published
- 2024
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