Supplementary material from "Jellyfish on the menu: mtDNA assay reveals scyphozoan predation in the Irish Sea"
Posted on 2017-11-17 - 12:36
Localized outbreaks of jellyfish, known as blooms, cause a variety of adverse ecological and economic effects. However, fundamental aspects of their ecology remain unknown. Notably, there is scant information on the role jellyfish occupy in food webs: in many ecosystems, few or no predators are known. To identify jellyfish consumers in the Irish Sea, we conducted a molecular gut content assessment of 50 potential predators using cnidarian-specific mtDNA primers and sequencing. We show that jellyfish predation may be more common than previously acknowledged: uncovering many previously unknown jellyfish predators. A substantial proportion of herring and whiting were found to have consumed jellyfish. Rare ingestion was also detected in a variety of other species. Given the phenology of jellyfish in the region, we suggest that the predation was likely targeting juvenile stages of the jellyfish life cycle.
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Lamb, Philip D.; Hunter, Ewan; K. Pinnegar, John; Creer, Simon; G. Davies, Richard; I. Taylor, Martin (2017). Supplementary material from "Jellyfish on the menu: mtDNA assay reveals scyphozoan predation in the Irish Sea". The Royal Society. Collection. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3933133.v1