Patterns of Sponge Biodiversity in the Pilbara, Northwestern Australia

Abstract

This study assessed the biodiversity of sponges within the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia (IMCRA) bioregions of the Pilbara using datasets amalgamated from the Western Australian Museum and the Atlas of Living Australia. The Pilbara accounts for a total of 1164 Linnean and morphospecies. A high level of "apparent endemism" was recorded with 78% of species found in only one of six bioregions, with less than 10% confirmed as widely distributed. The Ningaloo, Pilbara Nearshore and Pilbara Offshore bioregions are biodiversity hotspots (>250 species) and are recognised as having the highest conservation value, followed by North West Shelf containing 232 species. Species compositions differed between bioregions, with those that are less spatially separated sharing more species. Notably, the North West Province bioregion (110 species) exhibited the most distinct species composition, highlighting it as a unique habitat within the Pilbara. While sponge biodiversity is apparently high, incomplete sampling effort for the region was identified, with only two sampling events recorded for the Central West Transition bioregion. Furthermore, only 15% of records in the dataset are presently described (Linnean) species, highlighting the continuing need for taxonomic expertise for the conservation and management of marine biodiversity resources.

Offshore platforms as novel ecosystems: A case study from Australia’s Northwest Shelf

“…The WN site also had higher demersal fish richness than the control sites in most surveys which suggests that habitat composition is a driver of diversity in these demersal communities, as has been found elsewhere on the NWS (Anon, 2019 ). The Pilbara Offshore mesoscale region, within which the study sites are located, is a biodiversity hotspot for sponges (Fromont et al, 2016 ). However, as much of the macrobenthos biomass was removed by seabed trawling (Sainsbury et al, 1993 ), most of the habitat in this region has been simplified.…”

“…This area was historically characterized by established macrobenthos communities made up of sponges, gorgonians, and soft corals on flat, sand inundated pavement (Evans et al, 2014 ). These macrobenthos communities were largely removed by pair‐trawling operations in the 1960s and 1970s (Fromont et al, 2016 ; Sainsbury et al, 1997 ). Previous studies on both platforms and pipelines on the NWS have found significant macrobenthos habitat associated with these structures, and abundance and richness of fish was higher on pipelines than on nearby natural habitats (Bond, Langlois, et al, 2018 ; Bond, Partridge, et al, 2018 ; McLean et al, 2018 , 2019 ).…”

Enhanced ROV Survey of Tropical Fish and Benthic Communities Associated With Shallow Oil and Gas Platforms

“…The cover of benthic biota on both platforms was high, yet diversity is unknown given that it is very di cult to identify many corals and sponges to genus or species level without physical examination of specimens. Thus, while a high diversity of biota is known for this region (Richards and Rosser 2012;Fromont et al 2016), few distinct groups could be identi ed on platforms. This highlights the challenges of utilising imagery, no matter the quality, to assess the diversity of benthic communities where specimen collection or physical assessment is required.…”

Naturally Prefabricated Marine Biomaterials: Isolation and Applications of Flat Chitinous 3D Scaffolds from Ianthella labyrinthus (Demospongiae: Verongiida)

“…The body architecture of most representatives of the Ianthellidae is characterized by a fan-shaped form [43][44][45]. In these sponges, tissues are localized on and within a mechanically rigid and dark-reddish pigmented meshwork which is produced by interconnected microtubular chitinous fibers (for details, see [30]).…”