North Atlantic deep-sea benthic biodiversity unveiled through sponge natural sampler DNA

The deep-sea remains the biggest challenge to biodiversity exploration, and anthropogenic disturbances extend well into this realm, calling for urgent management strategies. One of the most diverse, productive, and vulnerable ecosystems in the deep sea are sponge grounds. Currently, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is revolutionising the field of biodiversity monitoring, yet complex deep-sea benthic ecosystems remain challenging to assess even with these novel technologies. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of whole-community metabarcoding to characterise metazoan diversity in sponge grounds across the North Atlantic by leveraging the natural eDNA sampling properties of deep-sea sponges themselves. We sampled 97 sponge tissues from four species across four North-Atlantic biogeographic regions in the deep sea and screened them using the universal COI barcode region. We recovered unprecedented levels of taxonomic diversity per unit effort, especially across the phyla Chordata, Cnidaria, Echinodermata and Porifera, with at least 406 metazoan species found in our study area. These assemblages identify strong spatial patterns in relation to both latitude and depth, and detect emblematic species currently employed as indicators for these vulnerable habitats. The remarkable performance of this approach in different species of sponges, in different biogeographic regions and across the whole animal kingdom, illustrates the vast potential of natural samplers as high-resolution biomonitoring solutions for highly diverse and vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Communications Biology
Published
2024-08-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06695-4
Citations
11
Primary Topic
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
5.05

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article

North Atlantic deep-sea benthic biodiversity unveiled through sponge natural sampler DNA

Andrea Corral‐Lou, Ana Riesgo, Erika F. Neave, Ramón Gallego et al.
11 citations
Communications Biology
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
5.05
article

North Atlantic deep-sea benthic biodiversity unveiled through sponge natural sampler DNA

Andrea Corral‐Lou, Ana Riesgo, Erika F. Neave, Ramón Gallego, Sergi Taboada, Adriana Villamor, Karin Steffen, Cristina Díez‐Vives, Paco Cárdenas, María Belén Arias, Ellen Kenchington, Stefano Mariani, Wang Cai
article en
11 citations

Abstract

The deep-sea remains the biggest challenge to biodiversity exploration, and anthropogenic disturbances extend well into this realm, calling for urgent management strategies. One of the most diverse, productive, and vulnerable ecosystems in the deep sea are sponge grounds. Currently, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is revolutionising the field of biodiversity monitoring, yet complex deep-sea benthic ecosystems remain challenging to assess even with these novel technologies. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of whole-community metabarcoding to characterise metazoan diversity in sponge grounds across the North Atlantic by leveraging the natural eDNA sampling properties of deep-sea sponges themselves. We sampled 97 sponge tissues from four species across four North-Atlantic biogeographic regions in the deep sea and screened them using the universal COI barcode region. We recovered unprecedented levels of taxonomic diversity per unit effort, especially across the phyla Chordata, Cnidaria, Echinodermata and Porifera, with at least 406 metazoan species found in our study area. These assemblages identify strong spatial patterns in relation to both latitude and depth, and detect emblematic species currently employed as indicators for these vulnerable habitats. The remarkable performance of this approach in different species of sponges, in different biogeographic regions and across the whole animal kingdom, illustrates the vast potential of natural samplers as high-resolution biomonitoring solutions for highly diverse and vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems.

Communications BiologyVol. 7(1)
Uppsala University (SE), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (CA), Natural History Museum (GB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Vanderbilt University (US), Bedford Institute of Oceanography (CA), Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CN), International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (DK), Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (ES), Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (ES), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES)
Biodiversa+, Sight Research UK, European Commission, Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Fundación Biodiversidad, Fundación Bancaria Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Natural Environment Research Council, Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
5.05
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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