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Nicole Boury-Esnault is a retired French researcher of
sponges Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through ...
, formerly at Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille,
Aix-Marseille University Aix-Marseille University (AMU; french: Aix-Marseille Université; formally incorporated as ''Université d'Aix-Marseille'') is a public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II o ...
.


Research

In 1995, Nicole Boury-Esnault and
Jean Vacelet Jean Vacelet is a French marine biologist who specialises in the underwater fauna of the Mediterranean. After earning his licence at the Faculté des Sciences de Marseille and learning to dive in 1954, he specialised in the study of sponges at th ...
discovered a species of carnivorous sponges of the genus ''
Asbestopluma ''Asbestopluma'' is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Cladorhizidae. The genus has cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the wor ...
'', during an exploration of a shallow cave in the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
. Caves can recapitulate the environment of the deep sea-bed due to the darkness and lack of nutrient, permitting the study of deep-sea-like regions in shallow areas of water. Carnivorous sponges, lacking the normal filter feeding apparatus, had been previously discovered during deep-sea trawls and presumed to be damaged since they did not have a known feeding mechanism. The discovery of members of the family in shallow water meant that they could be experimentally tested, which is when Boury-Esnault and Vacelet observed feeding on small crustaceans. Later they also reported on a member of the genus which used both carnivory and methanotrophy to survive in deep-sea expeditions of the Barbados trench. Boury-Esnault and Vacelet also found
hexactinellid Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed siliceous spicules, often referred to as glass sponges. They are usually classified along with other sponges in the phylum Porifera, but some researchers consi ...
(glass) sponges, another deep-sea species, in these shallow cave waters, permitting detailed study for the first time. She led a collaboration with Oceana and the
University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...
which found new glass sponges in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
, and in the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. In 1997 Boury-Esnault and Klaus Rutzler published a 'Thesaurus of Sponge Morphology' with the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
. In 2012 Boury-Esnault was involved in a study capturing the number and diversity of sponges in seas all around the world.


Publications


Books

*


See also

* Taxa named by Nicole Boury-Esnault


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boury-Esnault, Nicole Academic staff of Aix-Marseille University Women marine biologists French women biologists Spongiologists