Effects of temperature changes on strobilation in Stomolophus meleagris (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa)

PEREYRA, D. Y.; SCHIARITI, A.; OLGUÍN JACOBSON, C.; OCAMPO, L.; CALCAGNEO, J.

Barcelona

Simposio; 5th International Jellyfish Bloom Symposium; 2016

Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC

Strobilation is the process by which scyphistomae produce and release medusae from thebenthos back to the plankton. It also signals the onset of sexual reproduction in bloomingmedusae and it is considered rare outside Scyphozoa. Hence, strobilation has importantecological and evolutionary implications. Accordingly, empirical and experimentalknowledge has been accumulating rapidly. There is a general agreement about theimportance of some factors (e.g. temperature, nutrition, light) on stimulating strobilation and regulating their rates. However, a close-up view shows that beneath these general trendsresults appear to be rather contradictory. In drawing together literature about strobilation,we reconsider some of the generalizations that were deduced from previous controversialresults. We classified these studies into categories defined by goals, methodologies and main results. We aimed to analyze apparent exceptions and assess how representative they are, seeking patterns, primarily to understand how the environment controls the magnitude of jellyfish blooms through strobilation rates. We found that, in addition to the natural remarkable variability of strobilation, the enormous diversity of utilized methodological approaches makes the identification of patterns even more complicated. Unless the process of strobilation is studied under a common methodology allowing the comparison of results, the distinction between the effect the natural and artificial variability will keep faint. Finally, we re-analyzed the literature excluding the information about Aurelia. We think that the enormous variability characteristic of this genus probably makes them inappropriate to be used as a study model if we are seeking patterns in Scyphozoa.