Conservações e áreas afins - Pôsteres - 30/11/2023 - 15:30 h às 16:30 h

Calcareous sponges are benthic marine animals, and their global biodiversity is underestimated [1]. In order to gain a better understanding of the species composition in the Western Atlantic, an analysis of endemism was conducted for the Caribbean, Brazil, and the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. A total of 79 species and 295 occurrences underwent Geographic Interpolation of Endemism analysis, which revealed that the Northeast and East marine ecoregions of Brazil are the most biodiverse in the Western Atlantic. When observing the number of endemic species, it was found that Brazil has 35 species, while the Caribbean has 28 species. These findings contradict the pattern observed for other marine organisms, where the Caribbean is recognized as a hotspot for marine biodiversity [2]. Considering the general lack of knowledge about this group of sponges and the scarcity of faunal surveys in the Caribbean region, there might be a survey bias, resulting in higher biodiversity being found along the Brazilian coast. Also, in Brazil, there are no records of the class Calcarea along most of the São Paulo coast, as well as the coastlines of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. The Argentine coast also lacks data, with the Falkland/Malvinas Islands being the only recorded location with 5 species. In this study, the identification of areas of endemism not only reveals regions of interest for the conservation of calcareous sponge biodiversity, but also highlights the significant gaps in our knowledge of the faunal composition of these animals in the Western Atlantic.