Filling Biodiversity Knowledge Gaps: Sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae) Recorded off San Jorge Gulf (Argentina), SW Atlantic Ocean

LAURA SCHEJTER; DIEGO A. GIBERTO

Conferencia; 2nd International Electronic Conference on Diversity (IECD 2022)?New Insights into the Biodiversity of Plants, Animals and Microbes.; 2022

The invertebrate by-catch of the Argentinean squid Illex argentinus collected by bottom trawls off San Jorge Gulf during an expedition performed in December 2020 was employed to characterize the bottom assemblages of the area, with special emphasis on sponges. According to the results, sponges were conspicuous and abundant components in these benthic communities, representingup to 40% of the total invertebrate by-catch (average: ~130 kgnm2 per site). Tedania (T.) mucosa wasthe dominant species. Other recorded species were T. (T.) charcoti, T. (T.) murdochi, Isodictya verrucosa, Iophon proximum, Clathria (C.) microxa, C. (C.) discreta, Haliclona bilamellata, Siphonochalina fortis, and Myxilla (M.) mollis. The results of this study contribute to filling in the gaps in the distribution records of sponges in the continental shelf of Argentina in a previously poorly studied area.