Feeding of Aurelia sp. (Scyphozoa) and links to the microbial food web

The impact of the scyphomedusa Aurelia sp. on planktonic assemblages was experimentally studied in enclosures incubated in situ in the sea lake of Mljet Island (Big Lake, Southern Adriatic), where jellyfish are present throughout the year. In situ feeding experiments using plankton at natural densities indicated a reduction in abundance for small calanoid and cyclopoid copepods, copepodites, nauplii and ciliates in the presence of Aurelia sp. In addition to direct predatory pressure, Aurelia sp. exerted an indirect cascading effect on autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial plankton. Phytoplankton biomass increases of up to 0.5 μg C·l−1·h−1 were mainly related to 19′-hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin- and 19′-butanoyloxyfucoxanthin-containing phytoplankton. Bacterial production was about twice as high in the presence of Aurelia sp. and biomass was also consistently higher. It appears that the top-down effect of predation along with material release by Aurelia sp. results in increases in microbial biomass and production.

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