Feeding rates of the jellyfish Aurelia aurita on fish larvae
We quantified feeding rates of field caught Aurelia aurita feeding on yolk sac cod (Gadus morhua) larvae in a series of incubation experiments. A short-time (similar to 1 h) functional response experiment with a wide range of prey concentrations (0.5-16 prey l(-1)supercript stop, initial concentrati...
| Published in: | Marine Biology |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/857dcf79-0bab-427a-9d76-f890cd21ce2e https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-005-0200-5 |
| Summary: | We quantified feeding rates of field caught Aurelia aurita feeding on yolk sac cod (Gadus morhua) larvae in a series of incubation experiments. A short-time (similar to 1 h) functional response experiment with a wide range of prey concentrations (0.5-16 prey l(-1)supercript stop, initial concentration) revealed that ingestion rates increased linearly over this range, such that clearance rates were similar between the different prey concentrations. This suggests that A. aurita is capable of efficiently utilizing dense prey patches. This indication was further supported by a linear increase of prey captured by A. aurita during 2.5 h of feeding at extremely high prey concentration (> 200 prey l(-1)). Clearance rate in darkness scaled with jellyfish diameter to a power of similar to 1.7 for jellyfish 3.9-9.5 cm in diameter. The jellyfish did not alter their umbrella pulse frequency in response to presence of fish larvae. There were no significant differences between A. aurita feeding rates in light and darkness for yolk sac prey ages 0-7 days (at 7.5 degrees C). Although prey vision and escape abilities of fish may develop rapidly during early larval ontogeny, these factors apparently have little impact on interactions with predators such as A. aurita during the yolk sac stage. |
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