News 2011
Jellyfish exhibit dynamic vertical movements - BEES research
Thu, 21 Jul 2011
DamienHaberlinandOceandivers600-196x147.jpg "Tom Doyle tagging a lion's mane jellyfish in Dublin Bay. Image copyright Damien Haberlin and Oceandivers")
BEES research on Jellyfish has shown that the marine creatures do not merely passively drift to find prey - they exhibit dynamic vertical movements that allow them to compete with fish for food.
The research, published in the high-profile scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society (B) was conducted in collaboration with colleagues at Swansea University, the Coastal and Marine Research Centre at UCC, the Marine Biological Association of the UK and the University of Plymouth.
School of BEES PhD student Thomas Bastian and CMRC researcher Tom Doyle, led the Irish contribution to the research.
"It's quite exciting working with those barrel jellyfish (up to 3kg) and both Thomas and I are now heading up a UCC led tracking study that will quantify both vertical and horizontal movements of the venomous lion's mane jellyfish in Dublin Bay," said Doyle.
For more information on the research see here.
www.jellyfish.ie
Reference:
Graeme C Hays, Thomas Bastian, Thomas K Doyle, Sabrina Fossette, Adrian C Gleiss, Michael B Gravenor, Victoria J Hobson, Nicolas E Humphries, Martin KS Lilley, Nicolas G Pade and David W Sims. High activity and Lévy searches: jellyfish can search the water column - like fish. Proc R Soc B (2011), doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0978