Life in the Open Ocean. Joseph J. Torres

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Life in the Open Ocean - Joseph J. Torres


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Medusae Larson (1987b) Pelagia noctiluca Fish eggs, copepods, cumacea, chaetognaths Larson (1987b) Pelagia noctiluca Copepods, decapods, cladocerans, chaetognaths Giorgi et al. (1991) Periphylla periphylla Copepods Fosså (1992) Phacellophora camtschatica Fish larvae, larvacea, gelatinous zooplankton, copepods Purcell (1990) Pseudorhiza haeckeli Fish eggs, fish larvae, copepods, larvacea, decapod larvae Fancett (1988) Stomolophus meleagris (21–83 mm) Veligers, copepods, tintinnids Larson (1991)

      Rogue Hydroids: Predatory Polyps in the Midwater

      Georges Bank is a shallow (45 m depth) hummock in the Gulf of Maine, USA, made famous by its former bountiful harvests of cod (Gadus morhua), sadly now depleted. The area was the subject of an intensive multidisciplinary 1990–2000 oceanographic study as part of the international GLOBEC (GLOBal Ocean ECosystem Dynamics) program, funded by the USA’s National Science Foundation. The mission of GLOBEC was to describe the interaction of physical and biological processes in the life history of important species. In the case of George’s Bank, the target species was cod.

      Feeding in the Cubomedusae

      The cubomedusae are well known as having a potent sting, particularly the Australian sea wasp Chyronex fleckeri, a large jelly (football‐sized bell and bigger) that can cause open welts in humans and, with severe stings, even respiratory distress and death. The virulence of cubomedusan venom allows the group to take large prey.

Schematic illustration of prey capture and ingestion in Carybdea marsupialis.

      Source: Adapted from Larson (1976).

      Medusae are among the very few aquatic taxa that swim using jet propulsion. Though “jet propulsion” does not necessarily invoke the mental picture of a slowly swimming medusa, the medusae, the squids and octopi, and the salps and doliolids are major marine taxa that swim using jet propulsion. Scallops also use it to escape from starfish predators by rapidly closing their valves to expel a jet of water, allowing brief forays into the water column.

      Source: Larson (1976), table 2 (p. 242). Reprinted by permission from Springer Nature Customer Service Centre GmbH, Cubomedusae Feeding, author R. J. Larson, in Coelenterate Ecology and Behavior, G.O. Mackie editor, 1976.

Species Coelenteron contents References
Carybdea alata Polychaetes, mysids, crab megalopae Larson (unpublished)
Carybdea marsupialis Polychaetes, misc. crustaceans (copepods, isopods, amphipods, stomatopod larvae, mysids, caridean shrimp and larvae, crab zoeae), chaetognaths, fish Berger (1900), Larson (unpublished)
Carybdea rastoni Polychaetes, mysids, fish Gladfelter (1973), Ishida (1936), Larson (unpublished), Uchida (1929)
Chiropsalmus quadrumanus Misc. crustaceans (amphipods, cumaceans, stomatopod larvae, Lucifer spp., caridean shrimp, crab larvae), fish Larson (unpublished), Phillips and Burke (1970), Phillips et al. (1969)
Chiropsalmus quadrigatus and Chironex fleckeri Caridean shrimp (Acetes spp.), other small crustaceans, fish Barnes (1966)
Tripedalia cystophora Copepods (Oithona spp.) Larson (unpublished)