JPR Advance Access originally published online on January 27, 2008
Journal of Plankton Research 2008 30(3):325-331; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbn003
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Diving behaviour of jellyfish equipped with electronic tags
1 Biological Sciences, Institute of Environmental Sustainability, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK 2 Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork, Glucksman Marine Facility, Naval Base, Haulbowline, Cobh, Cork, Ireland 3 Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft NR33 0HT, UK
* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: g.hays{at}swan.ac.uk
Received on November 30, 2007; accepted on January 7, 2008
| Abstract |
|---|
Jellyfish are one of the most abundant and conspicuous members of our coastal marine fauna and are now known to play major trophic roles in marine systems. However, little is known about the movements and behaviour of individuals. We equipped individual compass jellyfish (Chrysaora hysoscella) (n = 15) off the Dingle coast, Ireland, with miniature time-depth recorders to log their depth over periods of a few hours. Vertical movements were extensive, with all jellyfish changing their depth during tracking. A range of vertical movements were seen including initial diving from the surface down to a maximum of 29.6 m after device attachment, some jellyfish remaining near the bottom, some moving up and down in mid-water and some moving back near the surface. These results show that jellyfish actively reposition themselves in the water column over small time-scales and open the way for more extensive studies equipping jellyfish with electronic tags.
Communicating editor: Roger Harris