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What Are Jellyfishes and Thaliaceans and Why Do They Bloom?

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Jellyfish Blooms

Abstract

The jellyfishes and thaliaceans comprise primarily planktonic species of cnidarians, ctenophores (jellyfishes) and chordates (thaliaceans or pelagic tunicates). Grouped together because of their gelatinous bodies, these diverse species nonetheless differ in their evolutionary histories and may have distinct morphologies, life histories, ecologies and other traits. Subsets of these species occur at some times and places in highly elevated concentrations, i.e. they accumulate, aggregate, bloom or swarm. Why jellyfishes and thaliaceans occur in such masses is, however, somewhat unclear; the reasons obscured in part by a tendency to treat many gelatinous zooplankton, including jellyfishes and thaliaceans, as a single functional group. Here we summarize the evolutionary relationships among gelatinous zooplankton and review the characteristics of blooms, before focusing on comparing and contrasting medusae, ctenophores and thaliaceans. We highlight some substantial knowledge gaps, emphasize biological factors that likely contribute to blooms and outline a population genetic framework for investigating the ecological causes of boom and bust population dynamics in the plankton.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/101029?redirectedFrom=jellyfish#eid ‘The popular name of various acalephs, medusas, or sea-nettles, from their gelatinous structure.’ Here, we use ‘jellyfish’ to refer to one or more individuals within a single species and ‘jellyfishes’ to refer to multiple species.

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Acknowledgements

The metazoan phylogeny in Fig. 2.1 was kindly provided by, and is used with permission from, Gonzalo Giribet. MND’s research on this topic has been supported by US NSF grant DEB-0717078.

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  1. National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK

    Cathy H. Lucas

  2. School of Natural Sciences, University of California, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA, 95343, USA

    Michael N. Dawson

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Correspondence to Cathy H. Lucas .

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  1. Australian Rivers Institute and Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Griffith, Queensland, Australia

    Kylie A. Pitt

  2. National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Cathy H. Lucas

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Lucas, C.H., Dawson, M.N. (2014). What Are Jellyfishes and Thaliaceans and Why Do They Bloom?. In: Pitt, K., Lucas, C. (eds) Jellyfish Blooms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7015-7_2

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