Biodiversity, environmental drivers, and sustainability of the global deep-sea sponge microbiome.

In the deep ocean symbioses between microbes and invertebrates are emerging as key drivers of ecosystem health and services. We present a large-scale analysis of microbial diversity in deep-sea sponges (Porifera) from scales of sponge individuals to ocean basins, covering 52 locations, 1077 host individuals translating into 169 sponge species (including understudied glass sponges), and 469 reference samples, collected anew during 21 ship-based expeditions. We demonstrate the impacts of the sponge microbial abundance status, geographic distance, sponge phylogeny, and the physical-biogeochemical environment as drivers of microbiome composition, in descending order of relevance.

Characterization of deep-sea benthic invertebrate megafauna of the Galapagos Islands.

The deep sea represents the largest and least explored biome on the planet. Despite the iconic status of the Galapagos Islands and being considered one of the most pristine locations on earth, the deep-sea benthic ecosystems of the archipelago are virtually unexplored in comparison to their shallow-water counterparts. In 2015, we embarked on a multi-disciplinary scientific expedition to conduct the first systematic characterization of deep-sea benthic invertebrate communities of the Galapagos, across a range of habitats.

SCHeMA EU Project Summer School Report (Bilbao June 16 - 17, 2016).

This conference report describes the training activities that took place in the frame of the Integrated in Situ Chemical MApping probe (SCHeMA) summer school organized from the 14th to the 16th of June 2016 in Bilbao (Spain).