The Havana littoral, an area of distribution for Physalia physalis in the Atlantic Ocean

The hydrozoan Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) is distributed throughout the Havana littoral zone, which is one of the circulation points of the currents that form the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre run. For the first time, a study was conducted monthly from May 2018 through May 2019 to be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Regional Studies in Marine Science
Main Authors: Torres-Conde, Eduardo Gabriel, Martínez-Daranas, Beatriz, Prieto, Laura
Other Authors: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fondo Financiero de Ciencia e Innovación (Cuba)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Elsevier 2021
Subjects:
AOi
Beaches
Cold fronts
NAOi
Portuguese man-of-war
Winds
Arctic
The Beaches
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/253579
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2021.101752
https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003339
Description
Summary:The hydrozoan Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) is distributed throughout the Havana littoral zone, which is one of the circulation points of the currents that form the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre run. For the first time, a study was conducted monthly from May 2018 through May 2019 to better understand the temporal and spatial variation of P. physalis in this region. This study covered five beaches in Havana (Cojímar, Bacuranao, Tarará, Mégano and Santa María). Transects of 50 m were located parallel to the shoreline and the colonies that arrived at the intertidal zone were counted. The colonies of P. physalis were mostly observed in May 2018 (80), November 2018 (110), December 2018 (132), January 2019 (152) and March 2019 (126), which coincided with the dry season in Cuba. This season was related to the presence of cold fronts and a negative average magnitude of the Arctic Oscillation Index (-0.05). The beaches with a relatively linear shape had a higher number of arrivals (549 colonies) than the beaches with a horseshoe shape (109 colonies). In addition, the highest number of colonies was associated with wind velocity above 33 km.h−1 (especially northerly wind), wave height above 1.5 m, and temperatures below 30 °C. Funding from CSIC (Project 2019AEP203) and from FONCI (Project “Reciclado de nutrientes y carbón a partir de biomasa para fertilización orgánica de avanzada en la agricultura en Cuba eco-inteligente y climáticamente positiva” ) is acknowledged.

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