Sponge communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic: species richness, diversity and density determined using targeted ben
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Sponge communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic: species richness, diversity and density determined using targeted benthic sampling and underwater video analysis Curtis Dinn1 · Xinyue Zhang1 · Evan Edinger2 · Sally P. Leys1 Received: 2 August 2019 / Revised: 22 May 2020 / Accepted: 23 June 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The sponge diversity of the eastern Canadian Arctic remains largely unknown. Sponges of the three marine ecoregions which make up the eastern Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic are described from collections using remote operated vehicle (ROV), box core, and Agassiz trawl. In total, 161 sponges were collected between 2015 and 2017, and 60 different species were identified. ROV surveys covered a range of benthic habitats, but sponges seen in video could only be identified to morphotypes. Twenty-seven distinct sponge morphotypes were identified from ROV surveys of six sites in the study region, but only fifteen of these were commonly encountered and unambiguously identified at the different sites. Transects were carried out in a non-linear manner due to ROV limitations, and covered varied benthic habitats ranging from soft sand to steep bedrock cliffs. The highest number of species identified from specimens collected was in the Northern Labrador marine ecoregion (46 species), while the highest number of morphotypes identified from ROV video was in the Baffin Bay/ Davis Strait ecoregion at a dive site near Pond Inlet (17 morphotypes). Several species collected and morphotypes counted were found across different ecoregions, but smaller sponges could not be identified from ROV video. Sponge density was estimated from exploratory ROV video and ranged from 0.008 ind. m −2 in Lancaster Sound to 0.371 ind. m −2 at a site near Pond Inlet. The combined collections and video analysis show the importance of using different collection and observation methodologies to properly understand the biodiversity of benthic habitats that are difficult to access. Keywords Sponge · Visual survey · Eastern Canadian Arctic · Sponge community · Biodiversity
Introduction Generally, the more remote a region and the deeper a marine habitat the less is known about species diversity (Archambault et al. 2010). The deep basins and the continental shelf in the remote Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic harbor a wide range of plankton, fish, mammal, and bird species which Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02709-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Curtis Dinn [email protected] 1
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Department of Geography, Department of Biology, Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University, St. John’s, Canada
2
are important economic resources, particularly for inhabitants of northern regions (Darnis et al. 2012), but the actual biodiversity of Canadian Arctic waters remains relatively under-de
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