Lunar Periodicity in Obelia

Elmhirst, Richard

doi:10.1038/116358c0

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The timing of abundance peaks over the shelf is later in the year than in oceanic areas and is linked to SST rather than the food environment. Although a number of environmental cues have been linked to the release of medusae by benthic life-history stages of cnidarians, including lunar cycles (Elmhirts, 1925), salinity (Goy, 1973) and ambient food (Roosen-Runge, 1970;Arai, 1987), temperature has the greatest support in the literature (Carré & Carré, 1990;Bullard & Myers, 2000). Interestingly, however, it is usually the cool and not the warm temperatures as observed here that are associated with medusa release by benthic polyps (e.g.…”

Section: Seasonal Patternsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic

Gibbons

Richardson

2008

Hydrobiologia

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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 , 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.

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Section: Seasonal Patternsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic

Gibbons

Richardson

2008

Hydrobiologia

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“…Typically, the cue for strobilation is low autumn/winter temperatures (Arai 1997, di Camillo et al 2010) that result in summer and autumn peaks in abundance, although food (Roosen-Runge 1970) and light (Liu et al 2009) can also be important. In the case of hydrozoans, salinity (Goy 1973) and light (Elmhirts 1925) can all be important as well as temperature (e.g. Widmer Flynn, Richardson, Brierley, Boyer, Axelsen, Scott, Moroff, Kainge, Tjizoo and Gibbons 140 2004).…”

Section: Seasonalitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Temporal and spatial patterns in the abundance of jellyfish in the northern Benguela upwelling ecosystem and their link to thwarted pelagic fishery recovery

Flynn

Richardson

Brierley

et al. 2012

African Journal of Marine Science

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“…Medusa development in some hydrozoans occurs only in seasons when conditions are optimal, and it may be suppressed at other times (Cornelius, 1990). Medusa release in Obelia has been linked to the phase of the moon (Elmhirst, 1925), and circadian periodicity in medusoid release has been found in some species of several genera of hydroids (Teissier, 1922;Brinckmann-Voss, 1970). Kubota (1996) detected a constant pattern of medusa release in Eugymnanthea japonica Kubota, 1979, a hydrozoan commensal of bivalves.…”

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confidence: 99%

Synchronous Mass Release of Mature Medusae from the Hydroid Halocordyle disticha (Hydrozoa, Halocordylidae) and Experimental Induction of Different Timing by Light Changes

Genzano¹,

Kubota²

2003

Publ. SMBL

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The timing mechanism for synchronous mass release of mature medusae of Halocordyle disticha was studied, using colonies from Shirahama, Wakayama, Japan, which were kept in a 450 I aquarium tank. In near natural conditions medusa release is correlated with sudden drop of light intensity such as occurs around sunset. Timing could be manipulated by controlling light intensity. Artificial sunset 2 hours earlier than normal caused mass release of medusae earlier than under natural conditions, whereas sunset artificially delayed 3 hours later than normal caused continuous release of medusa after the onset of darkness. The spawning of gametes of H. disticha is almost simultaneous with medusa release, and since the medusa has an ephemeral planktonic existence, synchrony of mass medusa release and also spawning of gametes may maximize fertilization success.

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Lunar Periodicity in Obelia

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic

Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic

Temporal and spatial patterns in the abundance of jellyfish in the northern Benguela upwelling ecosystem and their link to thwarted pelagic fishery recovery

Synchronous Mass Release of Mature Medusae from the Hydroid Halocordyle disticha (Hydrozoa, Halocordylidae) and Experimental Induction of Different Timing by Light Changes

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