Sponges (phylum Porifera) are known to be very rich sources for bioactive compounds, mainly secondary metabolites. Main efforts are devoted to cell- and mariculture of sponges to assure a sustainable exploitation of bioactive compounds from biological starting material. These activities are flanked by improved technologies to cultivate bacteria and fungi which are associated with the sponges. It is the hope that by elucidating the strategies of interaction between microorganisms and their host (sponge), by modern cell and molecular biological methods, a more comprehensive cultivation of the symbiotic organisms will be possible. The next step in the transfer of knowledge to biotechnological applications is the isolation, characterization and structural determination of the bioactive compounds by sophisticated chemical approaches.

We might think of sponges as bathroom objects but the real living animals are far more interesting. They come in all shapes and sizes, occur in all oceans of the world, and have amazing lives. Sponges have lived in our oceans for 600 million years. Ancient forms even built reefs bigger than the Great Barrier Reef. Today, sponges help clean our oceans, are experts are chemical warfare and can rebuild themselves after being torn apart. Some even live for 2000 years. There is still much to learn about the diversity and biology of sponges in southern Australian waters, with many species still waiting for formal scientific description. This guide introduces naturalists, beachcombers, divers and others to sponge species commonly encountered in southern Australia.

While sponges represent a very simple group of organisms, which are represented by over 8000 species, there is considerable interest in the increasing role they may play in future marine ecosystems. While we still have a comparatively limited understanding of how sponges will respond to ocean warming and acidification there is evidence that some species may have the ability to acclimate or even adapt to these stressors. This comprehensive collection of articles describes our current understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification and warming on sponges across multiple levels of biological organisation, and from the geological past to the present. With expert contributions from across the world this book represents the most up-to-date view on sponge responses to climate change. This book will be of interest to a wide audience of marine scientists and managers, who are grappling with how to manage, conserve and protect marine ecosystems.

The main focus of this book entitled is to provide an up-to-date coverage of marine sponges and their significance in the current era. This book is an attempt to compile an outline of marine sponge research to date, with specific detail on these bioactive compounds, and their pharmacological and biomedical applications. The book encompasses twenty chapters covering various topics related to Marine Sponges. Initial couple of chapters deal about the worldwide status of marine sponge research, the recent findings regarding dynamics of sponges, and several interesting research areas, that are believed to be deserving of increased attention. Variety of sponges, their toxicology, metagenomics, pharmaceutical significance and their possible applications in biomedicine has been discussed in detail. The second half of this part includes chapters on chemical ecology of marine sponges followed by the discussion on importance of bioeroding sponges in aquaculture systems. The following four chapters of the book deal majorly with the chemical molecules of marine sponges. In the fifth chapter, marine sponge-associated actinobacteria and their pysicochemical properties have been discussed followed by their bioactive potential. The biological application of marine sponges has been presented in later chapters with the classification of biologically active compounds being explored in detail. The second half of the book presents the vast repertoire of secondary metabolites from marine sponges, which include terpenoids, heterocycles, acetylenic compounds, steroids and nucleosides. Further, the bioactive potential of these compounds has also been discussed. One of the constituent chapter elaborates the bioactive alkaloids from marine sponges namely, pyridoacridine, indole, isoquinolene, piperidene, quinolizidine, steroidal and bromotyrosine alkaloids isolated from them. In the next couple of chapters, important sponge polymers and the anticancer effects of marine sponge compounds have been presented. The most interesting aspect of sponge biology is their use in biomedical arena. An effort has been made in this book, to cover the major constituents of sponges and their biomedical potentials. The major portion of sponge body is composed of collagen and silica and used in tissue engineering as scaffold material. This part of the book compiles chapters delineating the isolation of sponge biomaterials including collagen and their use in medical diagnostics. Overall, this book would be an important read for novice and experts in the field of sponge biology.

This book focuses on the symbiotic microbiomes of invertebrates in coral reefs, especially sponges and corals. It provides in-depth and up-to-date reviews on the microbial structure and diversity, metabolism and function, symbiosis and coevolution, environment and adaption, and bioactive potentials. Meanwhile, the future perspectives will be discussed according to the existing problems and the development trend. This book will be of particular interest to the professionals in marine ecology, marine biotechnology, as well as medicinal chemists and molecular biologists.

This report represents the first economic valuation of the ecosystem services provided by deep-sea sponges in the North Atlantic. It is based on information available in the scientific literature at the time of writing, but also indicates the research areas where discoveries and research advances are shortly expected. The report is aimed at a generic public with no specialized knowledge on sponges or on economic valuation. It is outlined in a way to provide essential background information, but makes reference to a comprehensive list of scientific publications for further insights.