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Rapid scavenging of jellyfish carcasses reveals the importance of gelatinous material to deep-sea food webs

Rapid scavenging of jellyfish carcasses reveals the importance of gelatinous material to deep-sea food webs
Rapid scavenging of jellyfish carcasses reveals the importance of gelatinous material to deep-sea food webs

Jellyfish blooms are common in many oceans, and anthropogenic changes appear to have increased their magnitude in some regions. Although mass falls of jellyfish carcasses have been observed recently at the deep seafloor, the dense necrophage aggregations and rapid consumption rates typical for vertebrate carrion have not been documented. This has led to a paradigm of limited energy transfer to higher trophic levels at jelly falls relative to vertebrate organic falls. We show from baited camera deployments in the Norwegian deep sea that dense aggregations of deep-sea scavengers (more than 1000 animals at peak densities) can rapidly form at jellyfish baits and consume entire jellyfish carcasses in 2.5 h. We also show that scavenging rates on jellyfish are not significantly different from fish carrion of similar mass, and reveal that scavenging communities typical for the NE Atlantic bathyal zone, including the Atlantic hagfish, galatheid crabs, decapod shrimp and lyssianasid amphipods, consume both types of carcasses. These rapid jellyfish carrion consumption rates suggest that the contribution of gelatinous material to organic fluxes may be seriously underestimated in some regions, because jelly falls may disappear much more rapidly than previously thought. Our results also demonstrate that the energy contained in gelatinous carrion can be efficiently incorporated into large numbers of deep-sea scavengers and food webs, lessening the expected impacts (e.g. smothering of the seafloor) of enhanced jellyfish production on deep-sea ecosystems and pelagic–benthic coupling.

Biological pump, Deep sea, Jellyfish carcasses, Metazoans, Scavenging
0962-8452
Sweetman, Andrew K.
5304cde0-8e83-4a68-8249-fa2d9e70d8bb
Smith, Craig R.
bc6b500e-38a5-48f6-a667-257b94edd11c
Dale, Trine
6d875630-02f1-48fb-b0a7-08bca3f9db84
Jones, Daniel O.B.
44fc07b3-5fb7-4bf5-9cec-78c78022613a
Sweetman, Andrew K.
5304cde0-8e83-4a68-8249-fa2d9e70d8bb
Smith, Craig R.
bc6b500e-38a5-48f6-a667-257b94edd11c
Dale, Trine
6d875630-02f1-48fb-b0a7-08bca3f9db84
Jones, Daniel O.B.
44fc07b3-5fb7-4bf5-9cec-78c78022613a

Sweetman, Andrew K., Smith, Craig R., Dale, Trine and Jones, Daniel O.B. (2014) Rapid scavenging of jellyfish carcasses reveals the importance of gelatinous material to deep-sea food webs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281 (1796), [20142210]. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2210).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Jellyfish blooms are common in many oceans, and anthropogenic changes appear to have increased their magnitude in some regions. Although mass falls of jellyfish carcasses have been observed recently at the deep seafloor, the dense necrophage aggregations and rapid consumption rates typical for vertebrate carrion have not been documented. This has led to a paradigm of limited energy transfer to higher trophic levels at jelly falls relative to vertebrate organic falls. We show from baited camera deployments in the Norwegian deep sea that dense aggregations of deep-sea scavengers (more than 1000 animals at peak densities) can rapidly form at jellyfish baits and consume entire jellyfish carcasses in 2.5 h. We also show that scavenging rates on jellyfish are not significantly different from fish carrion of similar mass, and reveal that scavenging communities typical for the NE Atlantic bathyal zone, including the Atlantic hagfish, galatheid crabs, decapod shrimp and lyssianasid amphipods, consume both types of carcasses. These rapid jellyfish carrion consumption rates suggest that the contribution of gelatinous material to organic fluxes may be seriously underestimated in some regions, because jelly falls may disappear much more rapidly than previously thought. Our results also demonstrate that the energy contained in gelatinous carrion can be efficiently incorporated into large numbers of deep-sea scavengers and food webs, lessening the expected impacts (e.g. smothering of the seafloor) of enhanced jellyfish production on deep-sea ecosystems and pelagic–benthic coupling.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 19 September 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 December 2014
Published date: 7 December 2014
Keywords: Biological pump, Deep sea, Jellyfish carcasses, Metazoans, Scavenging

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 448918
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/448918
ISSN: 0962-8452
PURE UUID: e18fa555-e68e-4fea-ad2a-3dafbb4eef8d

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Date deposited: 10 May 2021 16:33
Last modified: 05 Jun 2024 17:48

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Contributors

Author: Andrew K. Sweetman
Author: Craig R. Smith
Author: Trine Dale
Author: Daniel O.B. Jones

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