Collection information of the genus Geodia from boreo-arctic North-Atlantic deep-sea sponge grounds

DOI

Boreo-arctic sponge grounds are essential deep-sea structural habitats that provide important services for the ecosystem. These large sponge aggregations are dominated by demosponges of the genus Geodia (order Tetractinellida, family Geodiidae). However, little is known about the basic biological features of these species, such as their life cycle and dispersal capabilities. Here, we surveyed five deep-sea species of Geodia from the North Atlantic Ocean and studied their reproductive cycle and strategy using light and electron microscopy. We confirmed that these five species were oviparous and gonochoristic and that their reproductive season spanned similar periods: from late spring to early autumn. Concerning their reproductive strategy, the high abundance of lipid yolk observed in the female gametes could indicate both a necessity for rapid fuel during embryogenesis in the water column and increased buoyancy for drifting over longer times. Overall, the investment in reproduction was lower for all the surveyed species compared to similar shallow-water species. Given the present hazards that threaten sponge grounds, it becomes crucial to understand the processes behind the maintenance and regeneration of populations of keystone deep-sea species in order to predict the magnitude of human impacts and estimate their ability to recover. The information provided in this study will be useful for developing adequate conservation strategies for these vulnerable deep-sea habitats.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.921626
Related Identifier IsSupplementTo https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.595267
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.921626
Provenance
Creator Koutsouveli, Vasiliki ORCID logo; Cárdenas, Paco ORCID logo; Conejero, Maria ORCID logo; Rapp, Hans Tore; Riesgo, Ana ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Contributor Natural History Museum
Publication Year 2020
Funding Reference Horizon 2020 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007601 Crossref Funder ID 679849 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/679849 Deep-sea Sponge Grounds Ecosystems of the North Atlantic
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 810 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-10.250W, 58.876S, 21.375E, 80.539N); Schultz Bank; Sula reef; Tromsøflaket; Korsfjord; Kosterfjord; Svalbard; Rosemary Bank
Temporal Coverage Begin 2011-09-11T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2019-03-28T00:00:00Z