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Biodiversity and phylogeography of Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean
sponges
Bogalho Teixeira Xavier, J.R.
Publication date
2009
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Bogalho Teixeira Xavier, J. R. (2009). Biodiversity and phylogeography of Northeast Atlantic
and Mediterranean sponges.
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For those of you acquainted with my lack of memory it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that this was the most demanding part to write…
During these almost five years I was privileged to be guided by a ‘team’ of (co-) promotores that greatly contributed to my scientific progress. First of all I would like to thank Rob van Soest, my daily supervisor, my mentor and my friend. Hartelijke bedankt for the (sometimes overwhelming) sponge taxonomy sessions, and the story telling about the life and work of famous spongologists. Working with you is the most inspiring and stimulating experience any young sponge taxonomist could wish for. I look forward to continuing the many projects we started but could no longer be included in this book. Thanks also for the care and concern that were beyond supervision responsibilities.
I am heartily thankful to Steph Menken for accepting being my promotor despite the obvious difference in taxon and realm of my research compared to the remainder of the group. Thanks for the thorough (and timely) corrections and insightful comments to my manuscripts and for the pleasant and interesting meetings. I have learnt a lot from all of them. You were a fantastic promotor! I equally thank Hans Breeuwer for the advices on the molecular work and for his contribution to my manuscripts.
Professor Frias, has been an enthusiastic supporter of my work since I was an undergrad and I heartily thank him for that. I’ll never forget our trip to Boston where, among other things, we met E.O. Wilson.
I would also like to kindly thank Peter van Tienderen, Rolf Bak, Xavier Turon, Gert Wörheide and Nicole de Voogd for being part of my PhD committee.
During these past years, the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam has been my home and its other inhabitants my family! I am therefore thankful to all of my colleagues and friends for making my daily life at work so much happier: Rob van Soest, Elly Beglinger, Mario de Kluijver, Wallie de Weerdt, Henk de Haas, Harry Ten Hove, Dirk Platvoet, Julia Kouwenberg, Ronald Sluys, Ronald Vonk, Edo Goverse, Ingo Janssen, Rob Moolenbeek, Brahm, Andreas, and Osman. Coffee breaks were always marked by Dirk, Ingo and Edo’s humour (on Mondays complemented by Ingo’s Monday-face).
A hartelijke bedankt to my Museum-mom (Diny Poelstra), one of the sweetest ladies I’ve had the chance to meet. How does one thank someone that knits scarves and brings heart-warming soup for you in the tough winter days? You’re in my heart!
To meisje Elly Beglinger…you are a true warrior and have been an inspiring model to me. Thanks for all of your support throughout these years… the gallons of coffee, the nice dinners but above all the cosy chats in the printer room. You have been a great friend.
Dr. Flatfoot also known as meneer Platvoet! Thanks for introducing me to Dutch herring in my first visit to Amsterdam … a terrible experience with a surprising result! Please keep that level of madness!
I also thank to my friends Paola Rachello, Saskia Marijnissen, Dirk Erpenbeck, Sven Lange, Fernando Parra and Danny Cleary for joining me in the ZMA ‘night-shift’. Dirk, thanks for the discussions about phylogenetics and the comments to my manuscripts. I hope the barracuda has paid off ;-). My sweet friend Sven, thanks for sharing with me many stories, drawings, music, cheese, marzipan, and for being a great friend… I deeply miss you!
To Julia I also thank for being such a great house-mate and for the many delicious French, Dutch and Surinamese meals. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to stay in your flat all this time. I’ve been really happy at Afrikanerplein 35B!
During these past years I had the opportunity and privilege to supervise several students on their BSc and MSc projects: Andreia, Frederique, Mandy, Oscar, Ruy, Helena, Paola, and Emma. Thank you guys for your enthusiasm with sponges and for the great work you did. With you I’ve learnt, among many things, how demanding but rewarding it is to supervise someone. To Emma I also
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
thank her patience and independence during the last phase of my thesis.
I also thank my colleagues and friends at Naturalis for the interesting and stimulating Marine Biodiversity Meetings. A special thanks to the lower metazoans working group Bert Hoeksema, Nicole de Voogd and Lisa Becking.
A significant part of my work was carried out at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) and I am therefore grateful to many people there. I thank the IBED management team, Ada Hoogendorp, Jody dos Santos, Betty Bijl, Tanya Noorlander and Mary Parra for looking after all the paper work and therefore making my life so much easier. A hartelijke bedankt goes to Jody for always solving any problem that would pop-up but especially for her kind and encouraging words every time we met; and to Betty for her support with the final arrangements before the promotion. Dank u wel!
A huge thanks goes to my lab-buddies Betsie Voetdijk, Peter Kuperus and Lin Dong. With you guys I learnt not to fear the lab’s ghost and to praise the PCR gods! You’ve helped me and my students in many moments and made the somewhat boring molecular work into a pleasant experience. Louie, thanks for your warm smiles and hugs. Peter Roessingh, thanks for your curiosity about my underwater explorations. Jan van Arkel is greatly acknowledged for his always cheerful smile and for his enormous patience during the process of designing the cover of this thesis. It may have taken 30+ versions but it was great fun and perfection was achieved! To Gerard Oostermeijer I thank for his always friendly and welcoming smile and hug.
I also thank three young researchers that without knowing have inspired me: Katja Peijnenburg, Nicole de Voogd, and Pieternella Luttikhuizen, excellent researchers and dedicated mothers. You are excellent role-models in the yet male-dominated Dutch scientific scene. To Katja I also thank for sharing the passion for marine phylogeography, the many interesting discussions, the lovely family dinners, and for translating the Summary of the thesis. Nicole, thanks for all the Cleary-clan parties. I look forward to showing you and the kleintjes a bit of Portugal.
To my other IBED PhD colleagues, Vera Ros, Mansour Aliabadian, Melis Akman, Noemi Meijenfeldt, Mathias Spichtig, Giovanni Bogota, Mirella Groot, Marc Stift, I thank their companionship. Verita, you have been a great friend. I’ll never forget the fantastic time we spent at Woods Hole! Melis, sağ olun for your friendship and the delicious Turkish meals you’ve cooked. I am really happy that you are my paranymph!
Throughout these years I’ve been privileged to meet, work with, and learn from several sponge researchers. Of these (too many to mention here) I would especially like to thank Paco Cárdenas (Paquito) and Julie Reveillaud (petite Julie), with whom I absolutely love to work, and whose sweet families I enjoyed so much getting to know. Good luck with the writing of your theses. I look forward to reading them. I also thank my dear friends from Galixia, Javier Cristobo y Pilar-Rios for the great moments in Graña and Berlengas. Moltes gràcies also to the CEAB spongers Iosune Uriz, Andrea Blanquer, Mikel Becerro, Ana Riesgo, Manuel Maldonado and Xavier Turon (and also to the polychaeters João Gil, Sergi Taboada-Moreno, and the echinodermer Adriana Villamor) for their support and great moments during my visits in 2006 and 2009. I hope to return soon...
I am extremely grateful to Bernard Picton, Claire Goodwin, Caterina Longo, Maurizio Pansini, James Bell, Javier Cristobo, Thanos Dailianis, Thierry Perez, Tatjana Bakran-Petricioli, Johanna Frotscher, Hans Tore Rapp and Ole Tendal for sending me samples and/or sharing information on the sponge fauna from their study areas. Your knowledge and samples have greatly contributed to the understanding of the biodiversity and biogeography of the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean sponge fauna (here reported). I additionally thank Christine Schönberg for so enthusiastically joining me in the study of the Cliona celata species-complex. Without you this work would be incomplete.
I also warmly acknowledge several institutions and people that have supported and hosted me in many sampling trips throughout the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and all the dive and/or expedition buddies of: Missão Bancos 2005, 2006; Madeira 2005; LusoExpedição 2006, 2008; Expedição Berlengas 2003, 2005, 2007; EMEPC 2008, 2009; Graña 2005; Blanes 2006; Piran 2006; Tenerife 2007; R/V Belgica Genesis 2009 (see also the acknowledgements of the individual chapters). Exploring the shallow and deep-sea marine ecosystems with you has been an amazing experience.
I am also grateful to several funding institutions that supported my research. The Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia was the main funding body that provided both my salary and tuition fees (grant no. SFRH/BD/16024/2004). Smaller travel, training and research grants were obtained from the: Schure-Beijereinck Popping Fonds of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW); Society for the Advancement of Scientific Research in the Tropics (Treub Maatschappij); EU Network of Excellence on Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Functioning (MarBEF); the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT); and the Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam).
Three people were truly influential in my initial steps in sponge research, my dear friends: Joana Matzen (Joaninha) who first suggested sponges as study-subject; Ana Costa (Nuchita) who taught me about invertebrate zoology, hosted me at her lab and supervised my undergrad thesis; and Wallie de Weerdt with whom I gave my first serious steps in sponge taxonomy. I think at that time none of us imagined how far this would end up going. Thank you so much.
I also have to thank all of my islander-friends whom I missed so much throughout these years: Nucha, Nocas, Janeca, Susana, João, Luz, Regina e Roberto, São, Carmo, Francisco, Nela (e sê Rui), Tucha, João Brum, and respective families. Thanks for making me feel as if I had never left. The return to the islands and to you is the best reward of all. Adriano, obrigado por tudo o que partilhamos. Tingosto muito!
Um agradecimento muito especial à Joana Micael, pelo acompanhamento via skype em todos os momentos e pelas encomendas-surpresa recheadas com bolo lêvedo, queijo da ilha e mic-macs (e ao Pedro por adicionar as morcelas Costa ao pacote vegetariano da Joana, eheh). Adorei ter-vos aqui em Amesterdão.
My favourite chemist-friends, Madalena Humanes and Helena Gaspar (Nini) I thank for an amazing exchange of ideas. Madalena amiga, obrigado pelas muitas vezes que me telefonaste para conversar e saber como iam correndo as coisas. Esta química que nos une não tem explicação científica.
On the other side of the Atlantic, I thank Stefano for stirring up my life… My life in Amsterdam would have been impossible without the ‘farinheira gang’ :-):
Paola and Annika, you have been my best friends here. We shared so many amazing moments, so many laughs and so many tears. Paolita, my favourite “bruja”, you would have been the most red-haired paranymph in UvA’s history! I will never forget the moments we spent together in our Piran-Blanes-Gorringe-Flores-São Miguel diving trip! Can’t wait to visit you and Albertone in Australia. Iiiiihhhhhhhhh! Annika, your passion for nature and people, and the social commitment with which you develop your research in Africa are truly inspiring. I loved all the moments we spent together and have been missing you and your sharp humour a lot. You girls will always be part of my life!
To my dear friend Ricardo Xavier, I heartily thank for all the journeys to real life after long days enclosed in the Museum, and for the many pages of
“Peanuts” that helped me so much to disconnect before going to sleep. I’ll never forget the expression of the “fierce vulture sitting on a tree limb waiting for a victim” and our energizing laughs. You’ve spoilt and moved me with your care. Thanks also for sharing with me the delicious Adventures of Don Patanisca and Don Tomatito. Can’t wait to see them in print! You have a special place in my life and heart.
A gigantic obrigado to my beloved friends Nuno Curado and Sabrina Carvalho (miúdos!). What a remarkable couple you guys are! Sabrina, you are an amazing friend and the best dessert cook ever! I will never forget the time we spent in the kitchen cooking portuguese feasts or in the flea markets finding vintage treasures. A deep and heartfelt thanks goes to Nuno, my best friend and handsome paranymph. You, more than anyone closely followed this PhD. Not only you read all of the chapters, but also significantly contributed to each one of them with useful comments and gorgeous maps. And on top of that you also formatted the final document! All words are too few… but thank you for your patience, support and care in each phase of the work… this thesis is also yours!
I would also like to thank the Leideners’ gang KD, Loek, Katja, Eric, Maris, Freek, Judith, Baas, Nicollete for the nice evenings spent together and for showing me a bit of the Dutch lifestyle. KD, you are one of the most passionate persons and researchers I’ve ever met. Thanks for sharing so many happy little moments with me.
And now some words in Portuguese…
A ti pai makako nem sei como agradecer… obrigado por aquele abraço acolhedor e por cozinhares os meus pratos favoritos sempre que passei por casa, muitas vezes apenas por algumas horas... valeu por cada garfada e cada segundo! Obrigado pelo apoio e amor verdadeiramente incondicional e intemporal que sempre me deste... sem ti nunca teria chegado até aqui. Nuno, Rui, Adriana, Carla e Lunita, vocês são a melhor família do mundo. Lunita, a ‘midinha’ vai voltar para brincar mais contigo tá bem? À minha mãe, por estar sempre comigo... Amo-vos muito! É a vocês que dedico esta tese!
Aos restantes membros das numerosas famílias Bogalho e Xavier agradeço o carinho de todos estes anos. Um agradecimento muito especial ao meu TiGusto por estar sempre lá pró que der e vier, e à minha TiJudite por nunca se esquecer das minhas sobremesas favoritas (os famosos ‘pesguinhos’ e o Pudim Moka). À minha TiHilda agradeço os abracos apertados, os beijos repenicados e o característico “ai Niiiina!” cada vez que voltei a casa.
