Background Phylum Porifera includes ∼8,500 valid species distributed world-wide in aquatic ecosystems ranging from ephemeral fresh-water bodies to coastal environments and the deep-sea. The taxonomy and systematics of sponges is complicated, and morphological identification can be both time consuming and erroneous due to phenotypic convergence and secondary losses, etc. DNA barcoding can provide sponge biologists with a simple and rapid method for the identification of samples of unknown taxonomic membership. The Sponge Barcoding Project ( www.spongebarcoding.org ), the first initiative to barcode a non-bilaterian metazoan phylum, aims to provide a comprehensive DNA barcode database for Phylum Porifera. Methodology/Principal Findings ∼7,400 sponge specimens have been extracted, and amplification of the standard COI barcoding fragment has been attempted for approximately 3,300 museum samples with ∼25% mean amplification success. Based on this comprehensive sampling, we present the first report on the workflow and progress of the sponge barcoding project, and discuss some common pitfalls inherent to the barcoding of sponges. Conclusion A DNA-barcoding workflow capable of processing potentially large sponge collections has been developed and is routinely used for the Sponge Barcoding Project with success. Sponge specific problems such as the frequent co-amplification of non-target organisms have been detected and potential solutions are currently under development. The initial success of this innovative project have already demonstrated considerable refinement of sponge systematics, evaluating morphometric character importance, geographic phenotypic variability, and the utility of the standard barcoding fragment for Porifera (despite its conserved evolution within this basal metazoan phylum).

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Abstract. The accurate and precise reconstruction of Quaternary climate as well as the events that punctuate it is an important driver of the study of lake sediment archives. However, until recently lake sediment-based palaeoclimate reconstructions have largely concentrated on Northern Hemisphere lake sequences due to a scarcity of continuous and high-resolution lake sediment sequences from the Southern Hemisphere, especially from the southern mid-latitudes. In this context, the deep maar lakes of the Auckland Volcanic Field of northern New Zealand are significant as several contain continuous and well-laminated sediment sequences. Onepoto Basin potentially contains the longest temporal lake sediment record from the Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF), spanning from Marine Isotope Stage 6e (MIS 6e) to the early Holocene when lacustrine sedimentation was terminated by marine breach of the south-western crater tuff ring associated with post-glacial sea-level rise. The Onepoto record consists of two new, overlapping cores spanning ca. 73 m combined with archive material in a complete composite stratigraphy. Tephrochronology and 14C dating provide the fundamental chronological framework for the core, with magnetic relative palaeo-intensity variability downcore, and meteoric 10Be influx into the palaeolake to refine the chronology. The µ-XRF (micro X-ray fluorescence) downcore variability for the entirety of the lake sediment sequence has been established with measurement of a range of proxies for climate currently underway. This work will produce the first continuous record of the last 200 kyr of palaeoclimate from northern New Zealand to date.

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The ~25.5‐ka Ōruanui supereruption (Taupō volcano, New Zealand) erupted >1100 km3 of pyroclastic material during the Last Glacial Maximum. The impacts of this event on climate and the New Zealand environment remain unresolved, particularly on ecological timescales. Using sediment cores from Onepoto maar palaeolake, Auckland (~240 km upwind from source), we have analysed pollen assemblages at contiguous 1‐mm intervals, around an intact 3‐cm layer of the Kawakawa‐Ōruanui Tephra to resolve and assess post‐eruption vegetation impacts and landscape recovery. Sediments immediately above the tephra record a decline in the relative abundance of the dominant canopy species of Fuscospora, and concurrent increase in the abundances of grasses, herbs, ferns and shrubs. These changes reflect a brief (<10 years) part‐defoliation of canopy trees, permitting more light to penetrate and to encourage sub‐canopy vegetation growth. A short‐lived volcanogenic cooling inferred from Antarctic ice core records may have contributed to the changes but cannot be separated from the immediate and direct ecological impacts of ashfall on vegetation following the eruption. Our results, here applied to the world's most recent supereruption, more generally demonstrate the value of millimetre‐scale stratigraphic pollen analysis from non‐varved lacustrine sediments as a tool for assessing past eruptive impacts on sub‐decadal timescales.

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