Stability of the Microbiome of the Sponge () in the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

The sponge microbiome, especially in Low Microbial Abundance (LMA) species, is expected to be influenced by the local environment; however, contrasting results exist with evidence showing that host specificity is also important, hence suggesting that the microbiome is influenced by host-specific and environmental factors. Despite sponges being important members of Southern Ocean benthic communities, their relationships with the microbial communities they host remain poorly studied. Here, we studied the spatial and temporal patterns of the microbiota associated with the ecologically important LMA sponge at sites along ∼400 km of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to assess patterns in the core and variable microbial components of the symbiont communities of this sponge species.