| Summary: | Trabajo presentado en el 6th International jellyfish blooms symposium, celebrado en Cape Town del 4 al 6 de noviembre de 2019. The world’s oceans are becoming warmer and more acidic as a consequence of climate change and the increasing uptake of atmospheric CO2. However, little is known about the impact of predicted future conditions on jellyfish, particularly on their early developmental stages. In this work, the interactive effect of rising temperature and ocean acidification on the physiology of the scyphozoan Cotylorhiza tuberculata polyps was examined to determine future responses of population dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea. Organisms were then exposed to different temperature and pH conditions predicted by IPCC for RCP8.5 scenario. Experiment 1 combined current winter conditions (18°C) and both pCO2 (400ppm and 935ppm) levels to detect effects on survival and asexual reproduction. Experiment 2 mimicked the current and future summer temperatures (24°C and 30°C) and pCO2 levels and was focused on assessing the response of the strobilation phase, essential for the adult phase to occur. Our results show that C. tuberculata polyps are quite tolerant to future Mediterranean conditions in the short term, surviving and reproducing asexually. However, these organisms are unlikely to thrive in the long term because acidification and temperature may affect statoliths formation and hence, the development and fitness of the ephyrae. Peer reviewed
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