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The Jellytrack project |
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Project participants |
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The Barrel jellyfish |
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Tracking the jellies! |
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Barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus) |
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Home |
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The Jellytrack project
Jellytrack is a two year project funded by the Esmée Fairburn foundation and NERC and carried out at Swansea University. Jellyfish may be taking over the oceans due to commercial fishing “down the food chain” whereby Man targets the largest fish species in an ecosystem and having decimated that stock then moves on to those fish at the next trophic level down and so on. The end-point of “fishing down the food chain” may be an ocean left with jellyfish. The conservation implications of jellyfish taking over the oceans both in terms of biodiversity loss and socio-economic impacts are clearly huge and dire. Despite this alarming prediction, there is very little known about the ecology of jellyfish largely because of a lack of targeted research. The Irish Sea is a particularly edifying case as, every year huge blooms (tens of millions of tonnes) of giant barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus) have been reported. This project aims at investigate the genetic diversity of the Barrel jellyfish in the Irish Sea and their behaviour and movements that have shaped this diversity. By studying current jellyfish distribution, movements and connectivity between Irish Sea populations, this work will help us understand if blooms may extend in future beyond current focal areas and engulf more of UK coastal waters and threaten coastal biodiversity. |
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Department of Biosciences |
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To contact us: |
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Phone: +44 (1792) 205678 ext 4614 |
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Connectivity of jellyfish populations: “Jellytrack” |
