Demosponges from the sublittoral and shallow-circalittoral (lt;24m depth) Antarctic Peninsula with a description of four new species and notes on br />in situ identification characteristics.

Specimens were collected by SCUBA diving from 22 sites along the Antarctic Peninsula, spanning latitudes from Diomedea Island (62°12.185'S) to Jenny Island (67°43.325'S).

Hexactinellida (Porifera) from the Drake Passage (Southern Ocean) with a description of three new species.

The Drake Passage has over 20 seamounts and ridges but it is notorious for large waves, fierce storms and strong currents that make benthic sampling difficult and therefore infrequent. Seamounts often have diverse sponge communities and may have high levels of endemism. Hexactinellida from Sars Seamount, an area in which the sponges had not previously been studied, and the Shackleton fracture zone were collected on a research cruise by the Nathaniel B Palmer in the Drake Passage, Southern Ocean.

Effects of two decades of rising sea surface temperatures on sublittoral macrobenthos communities in Northern Ireland, UK.

We examined whether two decades of rising sea surface temperatures have resulted in significant changes in the benthic community and frequency of occurrence of Northern and Southern species in three areas of Northern Ireland, using visual census data collected by SCUBA surveys undertaken during two periods: pre-1986 and post-2006. We found little evidence to suggest that rising sea surface temperatures have contributed to the changes in benthic assemblage structure between the pre-1986 and post-2006 surveys. However, there were slight but not significant declines in extreme Northern species at Rathlin Island, and increases in the mean number and frequency of occurrence of extreme Southern species in all three areas.