Taxonomy and Ecology
of Caribbean Sponges

In July 2006, 13 students representing 9 countries participated in a 12-day course on the taxonomy and ecology of Caribbean sponges. This course worked synergistically with the Smithsonian Institution’s DNA Barcode initiative. Lecture material included discussions of the current taxonomy of marine sponges and tunicates, an overview of the morphological characters that differentiate families, recent developments of cytological characters, and applications of molecular systematics to questions in taxonomy. Field surveys of mangrove and reef communities allowed students to gain experience with field identification and with several survey techniques. During the class instructors and students collected multiple samples of 100 sponge species with the goal of providing proof of concept for rapidly and efficiently generating high quality DNA extractions for DNA barcoding as samples are identified by experts at the point of collection. Students conducted independent projects on assaying the diversity of cryptic interstitial sponge fauna, diversity of sponges of mangrove islands and the development of resources on sponge biology for educators. Sponsored by SENACYT.