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Invading Aurelia aurita has established scyphistoma populations in the Caspian Sea

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Abstract

The Caspian Sea has no endemic Scyphozoa. In 1999, a mass accumulation of Aurelia medusae was recorded, indicating that sometime earlier, jellyfish had invaded the basin, but since then no scyphozoans have been reported in the Caspian. In the fall of 2008, we found scyphistomae (scyphoid polyps) during a cruise to the eastern Middle Caspian. The scyphistomae were numerous (100–10,000 ind. m−2) and occupied a depth range of 30–73 m. Genetic data (18S rDNA, ITS-1 and COI) showed that the scyphistomae belonged to the species A. aurita. The current genetic data set is insufficient to determine the source region(s) of the invasive A. aurita. It remains unclear why no moon jellies have been recorded in the Caspian in the last 10 years. Because swarming scyphomedusae are often pests, the presence of scyphistomae should be considered as a warning of a possible outbreak of A. aurita medusae in the Caspian.

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Acknowledgments

The RV Rift of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, provided a reliable sampling platform. M.N. Dawson shared his library of Aurelia ITS–1 sequences. I. Kuznetsov took light microscopic images of scyphistomae. A.A. Dobrovolski and N. Lentsman read critically early versions of the manuscript. Suggestions of two anonymous reviewers and the editor JE Purcell improved the logic of the submitted manuscript. The sequencing was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation program SCOPES, grant IB73A0-111064/1. We express our gratitude to the persons and institutions mentioned.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia

    Sergei Korsun

  2. Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    José F. Fahrni & Jan Pawlowski

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  1. Sergei Korsun
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  2. José F. Fahrni
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  3. Jan Pawlowski
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Correspondence to Sergei Korsun.

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Communicated by J. Purcell.

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Korsun, S., Fahrni, J.F. & Pawlowski, J. Invading Aurelia aurita has established scyphistoma populations in the Caspian Sea. Mar Biol 159, 1061–1069 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-1886-9

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