Preface: Sponge research developments

Abstract

Since 1970, world-wide experts on virtually every aspect of sponge biology have met together once every 4–8 years to present and discuss the latest developments in sponge research. The diverse contributions to each meeting have been published together as monographic proceedings, each book establishing a landmark reference (often more than 500 pages) on Sponge Science, and contributing collectively (7 books) to the establishment of a meaningful tradition. This current book ‘‘Ancient animals, new challenges: developments in sponge research,’’ published as a special volume of the international journal Hydrobiologia, has attempted to continue this tradition by collecting contributions presented to the VIII World Sponge Conference, held by the Centre d’Estudis Avancats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC) in Girona, Spain in September 2010. The Conference hosted a total of 270 attendants from 36 countries, who presented 354 contributions. The Scientific Program included the topics of Evolution and Phylogeny, Organism and Cell Biology, Population Biology, Ecology, Natural Products, Sponges and Society, and Taxonomy. The present volume includes a subset of this research (27 articles), and hopefully will offer a window to the forefront of Sponge Science and its implications in Marine Life Science. The collection of articles reflects hot, ongoing debates in molecular research, such as the monophyletic versus paraphyletic nature of the sponge group, or the new awareness on pros and cons of standard barcodes and other markers in sponge taxonomy and phylogeny. It also features articles showing how the new sequencing technologies reveal the functional and phylogenetic complexity of the ‘‘microbial universe’’ associated to sponge tissues. The ecological interactions of sponges, the effects of nutrients and pollutants, the variability in reproductive patterns, and the processes generating genotypic and phenotypic variability in sponge populations are also covered in several contributions. Zoogeography, population structure and dynamics are also approached with both traditional and molecular tools. The effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the natural environment also finds its place in this volume, with papers dealing with metal accumulation and the potential role of sponges as biomonitors. Biodiversity data from unexplored tropical and deep sea areas are also presented. Because the number of papers included in the volume is relatively low compared to the total of contributions to the Conference, it can be argued that we, the Guest Editors, missed the tradition of getting the bulk of the Conference published. Massive publication would only have been possible under the Guest editors: M. Maldonado, X. Turon, M. A. Becerro & M. J. Uriz / Ancient animals, new challenges: developments in sponge research