A Simple Temperature Dependent Model to Predict the Bloom of Aurelia Aurita Polyps

Abstract

Asexual benthic polyp reproduction plays a major role in the jellyfish bloom. Recent studies found that temperature is the most important factor to regulate the budding rate of the polyps. We established a simple dynamic model to count the number of polyps depending on the variation of temperature with two data sets from different places. The population of polyps was counted through the budding rate and the number of budding times by Fibonacci sequence. It is assumed that the budding rate depends on the temperature only.The budding rate of the asexual reproduction shows very sensitive to the distribution of the seawater temperature. The model was tested to the temperature data of Ansan located in the west sea of Korea. The results indicate that this model can be useful to predict the blooms of Aurelia aurita polyps, which may have considerable influence on the bloom of medusa. The shape of temperature curve plays a key role in the predicting the bloom of Aurelia aurita polyps.