Sponges play an important role in many marine habitats and are crucial for maintaining the deep-sea marine ecosystems. However, there is a knowledge gap in the field of sponge biodiversity due to insufficient exploration of the deep-sea, and the probability of finding new species is fairly high. The deep waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans are particularly poorly explored, and their sponge diversity is barely known. During the KANADEEP 2 expedition in the south of New Caledonia a large collection of Demospongiae and Hexactinellida was gathered to assess the sponge biodiversity. In this project 110 Demosponges were investigated morphologically and identified to the order level. Twenty-one of these were selected for further identification and description in terms of shape and geometry of spicules using light microscopy. The DNA was extracted from eight specimens for the confirmation of new species. Amplification of CO1 Folmer fragment was conducted using PCR. The resulting PCR-products were analyzed using gel electrophoresis and DNA-sequencing. The twenty-one specimens were assigned to the genera Tethya, Stupenda and Geodia belonging to the order Tetractinellida, which was found to be the dominant order in the deep waters in the New Caledonia region. There are potentially six new species amongst the studied specimens. However, it has to be confirmed with molecular analysis of specific markers. The morphological analysis of 21 specimens collected during the KANADEEP 2 expedition demonstrated that 17 specimens belonged to Geodia, two specimens to Tethya, and two specimens to Stupenda.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-423822 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Hakhverdyan, Sona |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för biologisk grundutbildning, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för läkemedelskemi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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