New Studies Give Shape to Future Jellyfish Research

jellyfish

Jellyfish appear to be on the rise and Sea Around Us Project members Deng Palomares and Daniel Pauly have recently published two studies in the journal Hydrobiologia that help lay the foundation for future jellyfish research. The first paper, co-authored with several other colleagues, provides an overview on the general aspects and shortcomings of jellyfish coverage in the online databases available to ecosystem modelers (i.e. Fishbase, Sealifebase, and Ecopath with Ecosim). The second study looks at the growth of jellyfish and concludes that jellyfish grow at a similar rate to small fishes. Their broad predictions on jellyfish growth might also assist in determining how specific, unstudied species might grow.

First Global Estimate of Fish Biomass

fishrocksSea Around Us Project member Villy Christensen is author on a paper that provides first-ever estimate of worldwide fish biomass and impact on climate change. Read the press release and the full study published in Science (here also is a link to the associated ‘perspective’ article). Below is a video animation of fish excreting pellets of calcium carbonate, a chalk-like substance also known as “gut rocks,” in a process completely separate from food digestion (animation by Dalai Felinto).