Journal
of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2022 | 14(10):
21961–21967
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7495.14.10.21961-21967
#7495 | Received 03 June 2021 | Final
received 06 October 2022 | Finally accepted 13 October 2022
First report of
marine sponge Chelonaplysilla delicata (Demospongiae: Darwinellidae) from the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean with
baseline information of epifauna on a mesophotic shipwreck
Rocktim Ramen Das 1,
Titus Immanuel 2 , Raj Kiran Lakra 3,
Karan Baath 4 & Ganesh Thiruchitrambalam
5
1,2,3,5 Department of Ocean
Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, Port Blair Campus, Andaman
Islands, Andaman & Nicobar 744101, India.
1 Graduate School of
Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara 903-0213,
Okinawa, Japan.
2 Marine Biology
Regional Center (MBRC), Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Chennai, Tamil Nadu
600005, India.
4 Infinity Scuba
Andaman’s, Chidiyatapu, Port Blair, Andaman Islands,
Andaman & Nicobar 744101, India.
1 asomorlora@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 titusimmanuel@gmail.com, 3 rajkiranlakra@gmail.com,
4 karan123divewithme@gmail.com, 5 ganesht.omb@pondiuni.edu.in
Abstract: During a biodiversity
assessment on a wreck located in the Andaman Sea (Andaman Islands), a single
specimen of sponge Chelonaplysilla delicata was recorded. Our finding confirms the species
taxonomy and highlights the current observation as a first report from the
Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean. The baseline information on epifaunaof
the wreck is further stated in this study.
Keywords: Biodiversity, epifauna, invasive, Porifera taxonomy, Tubastraea.
Editor: R. Ravinesh,
Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, Kachchh, India. Date of publication: 26 October 2022 (online &
print)
Citation: Das, R.R., T. Immanuel, R.K. Lakra, K. Baath & G. Thiruchitrambalam
(2022). First report of marine sponge Chelonaplysilla delicata
(Demospongiae: Darwinellidae)
from the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean with baseline information of epifauna on a
mesophotic shipwreck. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 14(10): 21961–21967. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7495.14.10.21961-21967
Copyright: © Das et al. 2022.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Self-funded.
Competing interests: A preprint of this manuscript was uploaded on Bioarxiv preprint server on 15 May 2019. The
preprint can be accessed at
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/63604v1
Author details: Rocktim Ramen Das finished his master’s in marine biology from
Pondicherry University, Port Blair Campus, where he was exploring the epifaunal
diversity in old shipwrecks. He then was associated with the National Centre
for Sustainable Coastal Management, Govt. of India. He later acquired the embassy recommended MEXT scholarship from the Japanese government and
is currently a PhD student working with Prof. James Reimer at the Molecular,
Invertebrates, Systematics and Ecology (MISE) Laboratory, University of the
Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. He is entrusted with understanding coral
diseases and health within the Ryukyu archipelago of Japan. Until now, he has
authored and co-authored seventeen research articles with two book chapters in
the fields of coral diseases, coral reproduction, coral ecology, artificial reefs, and marine sponges etc.
Dr. Titus Immanuel is currently working as a
post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian
Institute for Science (CES, IISc) on multiple projects. His main
research interests lie in understanding Poriferan taxonomy, marine invertebrate
biodiversity documentation, coral health and reef resilience studies.
Dr. Raj Kiran Lakra is a marine biologist with expertise in benthic communities. He has a master’s degree and a PhD from Pondicherry University.
He has worked on various benthic fauna and on seagrass ecosystem. His main
interest lies in the taxonomy and ecology aspect of marine annelids
(Polychaeta). He is interested in
understanding the functional response of Macrobenthic communities to the existing environmental conditions.
Karan Baath is a dive instructor/owner at the Infinity Scuba Dive School located
in Chidiyatapu, Andaman Islands. He is one of the pioneers who have explored majority of the islands within the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago.
Dr. Ganesh Thiruchitrambalam is working as an assistant professor in the Department of Ocean
Studies and Marine Biology at Pondicherry University, Port Blair Campus. He has
published several papers in the fields of marine
benthic ecology, coastal ecological quality status assessment, seagrass
ecosystems, intertidal ecology, marine molluscs, polychaete taxonomy and
ecology, and Brachyuran crabs of the Andaman Islands. Dr. Ganesh is teaching courses on Marine Invertebrates, Marine Vertebrates, and Marine
Environmental Impact Assessment for MSc students. He has published book
chapters with National and International publishers. He has participated in
several scientific cruises in the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the
Indian Ocean. He has also been a part of the Indian research team in the
exploration of the Arctic Ocean.
Author contributions: RRD—conceptualization, study design, writing original draft, reviewing
& editing, field assessment, sample collection, data
analysis, laboratory analysis. TI—writing original draft, reviewing &
editing, sample identification, laboratory analysis. RKL—study design, writing,
reviewing & editing, field assessment. KB—field assessment. GT—study
design, writing, reviewing & editing, supervision.
Acknowledgements: The authors thank Dr.
P.M. Mohan, former head of the Department of Ocean studies and Marine Biology
(DOSMB), Andaman Campus, Pondicherry Central University (PU) for the necessary
facilities. Dr. S. Venu
(DOSMB, PU), for suggestions and recommendations during the initial phase of
the study. Dr. F. Sinniger
(University of the Ryukyus, Japan) for comments on mesophotic ecosystem. Drs. K. Wangkulangkul (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand), and S.Y. Tenjing
(National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, India) for comments on
English language. The authors are
grateful to Dr. Sourabh Kumar Dubey (Susama Devichowdhurani Marine
Biological Research Institute, Sundarbans, India) for preparing the Bengali
abstract and acknowledges the assistance in APC transaction by Ms. Moramee Das.
INTRODUCTION
The Andaman Sea, an
eastern subdivision of the Indian Ocean, is bordered by countries like Thailand
and Myanmar on the east and the Andaman archipelago (Andaman & Nicobar
Islands/ANI) on the west (Figure 1) (Brown 2007). A large portion, however, falls
within the boundary of the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) (Rudi et al. 2012).
Studies related to its marine biodiversity or the coral reef ecosystem have
been comparatively understudied or scattered (Aungtonya
et al. 2000; Brown 2007). Additionally, the Andaman Sea possesses several
shipwrecks (Kheawwongjan & Kim 2012) acting as
artificial reef ecosystems, knowledge pertaining to which is mostly limited in
the region. These sunken structures provide space for the growth and
establishment of various sessile marine communities like poriferans (Walker et
al. 2007; Lira et al. 2010) and other non-native species (Patro et al. 2015; Soares et al. 2020). Within the Indian
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), recent studies targeting shallow-water wrecks
have filled important knowledge gaps (example Mohan 2013; Das 2014;
Yogesh-Kumar et al. 2015) (Table 1). This article further adds essential
information about these rarely studied ecosystems at a mesophotic depth and
reports a marine sponge from the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The sponge, Chelonaplysilla delicata
(Image 1), was collected from the shipwreck HMIS SM* during a survey
conducted to document epifaunal diversity from February to March 2014. The
wreck is a 70-m long Royal Indian navy minesweeper that sank in the year of
1942. It is located at a depth of 33m near Chidiyatapu
on the edge of the Macpherson Strait (11.477°N, 92.703°E) (Figure 1). Water
transparency and temperature were recorded with a Secchi disc and a dive
calculator. After collection, the specimen was preserved in 100% ethanol. A
surface peel of the easily separable cortex of the specimen was removed and
placed in xylene for 24 hours, after which a permanent slide of the peel was
mounted with DPX. A single fibre with its base and branches
intact was removed from the sponge for species-level identification under a
stereo microscope (Image 1B–D). The specimen was identified following Pulitzer-Finali & Pronzato (1999). The
preserved specimen is deposited in the National Zoological Collections (NZC) of
the Andaman & Nicobar Regional Centre (ANRC), Zoological Survey of India
(ZSI), Port Blair.
Benthic cover was
assessed by randomly placing 20 (0.25 x 0.25 m) quadrats (Image 2). The
photographs were analysed using open-sourced Coral-Net software (Beijbom et al. 2012), and the epifauna was classified into
Unknown, Porifera, Scleractinian, Ircinia
sp. (Porifera), Algae, Iotrochota sp.
(Porifera), Sediment, Tubastraea aff. coccinea, Tubastraea
micranthus, Hard Substrate, Ascidian, and
Bleached Coral (modified from Zintzen et al. 2006).
Other specimens not within the quadrat have been identified wherever possible
to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Later, the data from the annotated
quadrats was transferred and processed in Microsoft Excel® (Microsoft
365 MSO, 16.0.13001.20266/32bit). Study maps were created using the
open-sourced Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS ver. 3.6).
RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
Systematics
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Dendroceratida
Family: Darwinellidae
Genus: Chelonaplysilla
Species: Chelonaplysilla delicata Pulitzer-Finali & Pronzato, 1999
Paratype: ZSI/ANRC –
14321, 2014, 1 ex., India: Andaman Island: South Andaman: Chidiyatapu
(11.477 °N, 92.703 °E), coll. Rocktim Ramen Das.
Diagnosis
Chelonaplysilla delicata predominantly
thickly encrusting (<10 mm) but has erect lobes that are about 4----–-5 cm
high. The sponge surface is conulose, and the acute conules separated from each other by 2–5 mm. Oscules 1–3 mm in diameter, flush with the surface and
unevenly distributed all over on sponge surface. The texture is soft
collapsible and feeble. The fresh specimen was dark violet or purple in colour
and retained its colour even in the preserved condition. Sponge surface covered
by structured regular reticulation of sand and spicule detritus, which forms
regular roundish or oval meshes of 90–155 µm. This reticulation is typical of
the genus. Regular rounded fibrous pores, inhalant in nature, is enclosed
within these rounded meshes (Image 1D). The skeleton is dendritic, made up of
pigmented fibres fragile in nature with repeated branching that originate from
a basal spongin plate (Image 1 B,C) and extends towards the boundary. The
primary fibre measured to be around 0.4 mm at its thickest. Spicules are absent.
Distribution
India: Andaman Sea
(ANI, South Andaman, Present study). Elsewhere: Bismarck Sea (Papua New Guinea)
(Pulitzer-Finali & Pronzato
1999), Indonesia (Sulawesi) (GBIF 2000), Palau (Micronesia) (Ridley et al.
2005), French Polynesia (Alencar et al. 2017) (Figure
2).
Remarks
Chelonaplysilla delicata is very similar to C.
erecta (Tsurnamal,
1967); however, the latter has fibres anastomosing in nature, whereas the
thickness of fibres in C. delicata fades in
diameter. The specimen mentioned in Pulitzer-Finali
& Pronzato (1999) is gray,
whereas our specimen is dark maroon in live condition (Image 1A). The specimen
was initially misidentified as C. erecta
(Das 2014; Das et al. 2016). Thus, there was a need for an update and filling
of knowledge gaps in this species distribution range.
Comments
The family Darwinellidae possesses sponging fibres with a proper
skeleton and fibrous spicules (Van Soest 1978;
Bergquist & Cook 2002). It consists of five recognised genera and 45
accepted species. Chelonaplysilla is
the only genus which is devoid of spicules but consists of a fibrous dendritic
skeleton that possesses a distinct laminated bark surrounding a central pith
region. A structured and separable cortex that is reinforced by a delicate
reticulation of sand grains (Van Soest
1978) distinguishes this genus.
Wreck Biodiversity
Benthic cover
assessment (Image 2) reveals that Poriferans were the second most abundant
group on the surface of the wreck, mostly encrusting in nature. In most
instances, the encrusting sponge genus Iotrochota
was readily visible. Ahermatypic and
invasive sun corals were abundant in selected localities and may have found a
successful substrate for further expansion (Image 2A, 3). Few polyps of Tubastraea micranthus
had signs of bleaching, a stark contrast to their ahermatypic
nature. Updated and revised identification following Das et al. (2016) on the
wreck surface includes scleractinian genera Favia, Symphyllia, Podabacia crustacea, and Leptoseris.
A single individual of the Gastropod genus (Chicoreus)
and a few crinoids. The identified poriferan families include Irciniidae (Ircinia), Chalinidae (Haliclona
(Reniera)); Thorectidae
(Hyrtios), Iotrochotidae
(Iotrochota baculifera),
Thorectidae (Dactylospongia),
and Dysideidae (Dysidea
sp.). Tunicates comprised Didemnidae (Didemnum), Perophoridae (Perophora), and other unidentified spp.
The faunal organisms
that thrive in artificial reefs (shipwrecks) are an important part of the
marine community (Zintzen et al. 2006; Amaral et al.
2010). With increasing anthropogenic impacts on natural coral reef habitats,
artificial reefs are regarded as a successful alternative (Perkol-Finkel & Benayahu
2005). As a result, it becomes important to understand the biological
communities growing in these habitats (Thanner
et al. 2006). Sponges, which naturally occupy shipwrecks, are one of the
dominant organisms in such habitats, as evidenced in the present study.
However, its diversity will be strictly limited to the environmental settings.
For example, some species of the genus Iotrochota
are found in sheltered environments (Cleary & de Voogd
2007) as seen in our observation (Image 2C). Similarly, shipwrecks are also
known to act as successful substrates for many non-native species, as reported
from the Atlantic and the Red Sea (Perkol-Finkel et
al. 2006; Soares et al. 2020). Repeated encounter of Tubastraea
aff. coccinea (Image 2A) earlier misidentified
as Dendrophyllia sp. and T. micranthus (Image 3) in the study site is a
strong evidence from the Andaman Sea (Das et al. 2016) (Figure 1). The sponge
species reported herein is at a much-extended depth compared to its initial
described type locality (see Pulitzer-Finali & Pronzato 1999).
Technical
difficulties have hampered studies on these habitats at mesophotic depths (Massin et al. 2002; Zintzen et
al. 2006). But with the rapid scale development of remotely operated vehicles
and submersibles, detailed exploration of these ecosystems can be well
predicted. Further, these areas might be a hub for various underexplored flora
and fauna and might be effective in reviving threatened marine life due to the
loss of natural ecosystems.
For figures &
images – click here for full PDF
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