This experiment was conducted to determine the reproductive performance of Arabian ewes treated with short and long-term progesterone devices in addition to low doses of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) during the anoestrus season. A total of 36 ewes were divided into three groups: in group I vaginal sponges (60 mg medroxy progesterone acetate; (MAP)) were applied and removed after 6 days; i...

Research examined constructed wetlands (CWs) in piloting the ‘Sponge City’, a Chinese initiative designed, part, to curtail extensive urban pluvial flooding. In Yangzhou small number of exploratory qualitative interviews with relevant professionals elucidated key issues. The interviewees supported concept CWs but were uniformly sceptical about their viability. A possible CW city was also modell...

As the increase threat of flood risk and environmental safety due to the urbanization, Sponge city research has been attracting extensive attention both in practical and theoretical research field. To date, there are only scattered studies about Sponge city. Moreover, vary names of Sponge city prevalent in different countries, which leads to disconnection of literature in the same field of Spon...

A pigment-producing strain of Serratia rubidaea was isolated from two consecutive cultures from a sponge of silastic foam used as a dressing for chronic crural ulcers. The bacterium caused a red discolouration of the sponge and the surrounding part of the leg. The silastic sponge creates a new type of environment for microorganisms. The growth of previously rare bacteria such as S. rubidaea may...

Although abiotic factors may be important first-order filters dictating which sponge species can thrive at a particular site, ecological interactions can play substantial roles influencing distribution and abundance, and thus diversity. Ecological interactions can modify the influences of abiotic factors both by further constraining distribution and abundance due to competitive or predatory int...

Recent studies have unravelled the diversity of sponge-associated bacteria that may play essential roles in sponge health and metabolism. Nevertheless, our understanding of this microbiota remains limited to a few host species found in restricted geographical localities, and the extent to which the sponge host determines the composition of its own microbiome remains a matter of debate. We addre...

We explore the distribution of sponges along dissolved silica (dSi) concentration gradients to test whether sponge assemblages are related to dSi and to assess the validity of fossil sponges as a palaeoecological tool for inferring dSi concentrations of the past oceans. We extracted sponge records from the publically available Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database and linked ...

Sponges are efficient filter feeders, removing significant portions of particulate and dissolved organic matter (POM, DOM) from the water column. While the assimilation and respiration of POM and DOM by sponges and their abundant microbial symbiont communities have received much attention, there is virtually no information on the impact of sponge holobiont metabolism on the composition of DOM a...

BACKGROUND Phylum Porifera includes ∼8,500 valid species distributed world-wide in aquatic ecosystems ranging from ephemeral fresh-water bodies to coastal environments and the deep-sea. The taxonomy and systematics of sponges is complicated, and morphological identification can be both time consuming and erroneous due to phenotypic convergence and secondary losses, etc. DNA barcoding can provid...

The South China Sea is a special reservoir of sponges of which prokaryotic communities are less studied. Here, a new record of the sponge Dactylospongia elegans is reported near the coast of Jinqing Island in the South China Sea, and its prokaryotic community is comprehensively investigated. Sponge specimens displayed lower microbial diversity compared with surrounding seawater. At the phylum l...