Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic
A number of explanations have been advanced to account for the increased frequency and intensity at which jellyfish (pelagic cnidarians and ctenophores) blooms are being observed, most of which have been locally directed. Here, we investigate seasonal and inter-annual patterns in abundance and distr...
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Springer Netherlands
2009
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ftunivqespace:oai:espace.library.uq.edu.au:UQ:159512 2023-05-15T17:30:11+02:00 Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic Gibbons, M. J. Richardson, A. J. Martens, K. 2009-01-01 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:159512 eng eng Springer Netherlands doi:10.1007/s10750-008-9593-8 issn:0018-8158 orcid:0000-0002-9289-7366 Pelagic cnidaria Ctenophora seasonality inter-annual climate change plankton C1 960305 Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change 050101 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change Journal Article 2009 ftunivqespace https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-008-9593-8 2020-11-02T23:34:30Z A number of explanations have been advanced to account for the increased frequency and intensity at which jellyfish (pelagic cnidarians and ctenophores) blooms are being observed, most of which have been locally directed. Here, we investigate seasonal and inter-annual patterns in abundance and distribution of jellyfish in the North Atlantic Ocean to determine if there have been any system-wide changes over the period 1946–2005, by analysing records of the presence of coelenterates from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey. Peaks in jellyfish abundance are strongly seasonal in both oceanic and shelf areas: oceanic populations have a mid-year peak that is more closely related to peaks in phyto- and zooplankton, whilst the later peak of shelf populations mirrors changes in SST and reflects processes of advection and aggregation. There have been large amplitude cycles in the abundance of oceanic and shelf jellyfish (although not synchronous) over the last 60 years, with a pronounced synchronous increase in abundance in both areas over the last 10 years. Inter-annual variations in jellyfish abundance in oceanic areas are related to zooplankton abundance and temperature changes, but not to the North Atlantic Oscillation or to a chlorophyll index. The long-term inter-annual abundance of jellyfish on the shelf could not be explained by any environmental variables investigated. As multi-decadal cycles and more recent increase in jellyfish were obvious in both oceanic and shelf areas, we conclude that these are likely to reflect an underlying climatic signal (and bottom-up control) rather than any change in fishing pressure (top-down control). Our results also highlight the role of the CPR data in investigating long-term changes in jellyfish, and suggest that the cnidarians sampled by the CPR are more likely to be holoplanktic hydrozoans and not the much larger meroplanktic scyphozoans as has been suggested previously. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace Hydrobiologia 616 1 51 65 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivqespace |
language |
English |
topic |
Pelagic cnidaria Ctenophora seasonality inter-annual climate change plankton C1 960305 Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change 050101 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change |
spellingShingle |
Pelagic cnidaria Ctenophora seasonality inter-annual climate change plankton C1 960305 Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change 050101 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change Gibbons, M. J. Richardson, A. J. Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
Pelagic cnidaria Ctenophora seasonality inter-annual climate change plankton C1 960305 Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change 050101 Ecological Impacts of Climate Change |
description |
A number of explanations have been advanced to account for the increased frequency and intensity at which jellyfish (pelagic cnidarians and ctenophores) blooms are being observed, most of which have been locally directed. Here, we investigate seasonal and inter-annual patterns in abundance and distribution of jellyfish in the North Atlantic Ocean to determine if there have been any system-wide changes over the period 1946–2005, by analysing records of the presence of coelenterates from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey. Peaks in jellyfish abundance are strongly seasonal in both oceanic and shelf areas: oceanic populations have a mid-year peak that is more closely related to peaks in phyto- and zooplankton, whilst the later peak of shelf populations mirrors changes in SST and reflects processes of advection and aggregation. There have been large amplitude cycles in the abundance of oceanic and shelf jellyfish (although not synchronous) over the last 60 years, with a pronounced synchronous increase in abundance in both areas over the last 10 years. Inter-annual variations in jellyfish abundance in oceanic areas are related to zooplankton abundance and temperature changes, but not to the North Atlantic Oscillation or to a chlorophyll index. The long-term inter-annual abundance of jellyfish on the shelf could not be explained by any environmental variables investigated. As multi-decadal cycles and more recent increase in jellyfish were obvious in both oceanic and shelf areas, we conclude that these are likely to reflect an underlying climatic signal (and bottom-up control) rather than any change in fishing pressure (top-down control). Our results also highlight the role of the CPR data in investigating long-term changes in jellyfish, and suggest that the cnidarians sampled by the CPR are more likely to be holoplanktic hydrozoans and not the much larger meroplanktic scyphozoans as has been suggested previously. |
author2 |
Martens, K. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gibbons, M. J. Richardson, A. J. |
author_facet |
Gibbons, M. J. Richardson, A. J. |
author_sort |
Gibbons, M. J. |
title |
Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic |
title_short |
Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic |
title_full |
Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic |
title_sort |
patterns of jellyfish abundance in the north atlantic |
publisher |
Springer Netherlands |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:159512 |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_relation |
doi:10.1007/s10750-008-9593-8 issn:0018-8158 orcid:0000-0002-9289-7366 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-008-9593-8 |
container_title |
Hydrobiologia |
container_volume |
616 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
51 |
op_container_end_page |
65 |
_version_ |
1766126014075764736 |