Journal
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
Volume 32, Issue 7, Pages 2469-2494Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10531-023-02613-y
Keywords
Marine provinces; Ecoregions; Marquesas; Tuamotu; Oceania; Dispersal
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The distribution of marine sponges in the tropical Southwest Pacific Ocean is poorly understood. This study conducted collection campaigns in French Polynesia to assess the biodiversity and composition of sponge species in the area. The results showed high levels of faunal similarity within marine provinces and provincial endemism for marine sponges. Geographical distance and ocean surface currents were identified as primary factors for connectivity between disjunct island groups.
The distribution of marine sponges in the tropical Southwest Pacific Ocean is largely unexplored despite the vital ecological role of sponges in coral reefs and their value as sources of metabolites for drug design. Several collection campaigns to the French Polynesian archipelagos (Society, Marquesas, Tuamotu, Gambier, and Austral) were conducted to assess the bio- and chemodiversity of the island groups. In the course of these scientific expeditions, more than 200 identified sponge specimens were acquired, for which we were able to assign 102 Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs). Based on these MOTUs, we assessed, in the largest analysis of its kind for this area to date, the sponge composition and faunistic overlaps of the marine province Southeast Polynesia with Marquesas and Central Polynesia. We also compared the sponge fauna of these Eastern Indo-Pacific provinces with marine provinces of the adjacent Central Indo-Pacific realm. Our findings corroborate that sponge faunal similarity within marine realms is higher than among realms, and follows the marine barriers to gene flow observed for other taxa. We detected high levels of provincial endemism for marine sponges, consistent with findings from other Indo-Pacific regions. At the level of province, geographical distance and ocean surface currents influence faunal similarity, and constitute the primary factors for the connectivity of sponge faunas between the disjunct and remote island groups in the tropical Southwest Pacific Ocean.
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