Background Sponges are very diverse and are found globally around the Caribbean to Australia. There are more than 8,655 species of sponges and biologists believe they may be more than 15,000 species that actually exists. These marine sponges are host to abundant and diverse communities of symbiotic microbes, which help the sponges with their metabolism. Marine sponges are able to cycle nutrients by dissolving organic carbon. Since sponges are host to abundant and diverse communities of symbiotic microbes. The guest speaker, Dr. Thacker who is working on Sponge Microbiome Project wants to know what forces structure these sponge microbiomes. He hypothesized that it may be the host identity, host phylogeny, or the biogeography. Or the carbon
