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. 2014 Dec 7;281(1796):20142210.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2210.

Rapid scavenging of jellyfish carcasses reveals the importance of gelatinous material to deep-sea food webs

Andrew K Sweetman  1 , Craig R Smith  2 , Trine Dale  3 , Daniel O B Jones  4
Affiliations

Rapid scavenging of jellyfish carcasses reveals the importance of gelatinous material to deep-sea food webs

Andrew K Sweetman et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Jellyfish blooms are common in many oceans, and anthropogenic changes appear to have increased their magnitude in some regions. Although mass falls of jellyfish carcasses have been observed recently at the deep seafloor, the dense necrophage aggregations and rapid consumption rates typical for vertebrate carrion have not been documented. This has led to a paradigm of limited energy transfer to higher trophic levels at jelly falls relative to vertebrate organic falls. We show from baited camera deployments in the Norwegian deep sea that dense aggregations of deep-sea scavengers (more than 1000 animals at peak densities) can rapidly form at jellyfish baits and consume entire jellyfish carcasses in 2.5 h. We also show that scavenging rates on jellyfish are not significantly different from fish carrion of similar mass, and reveal that scavenging communities typical for the NE Atlantic bathyal zone, including the Atlantic hagfish, galatheid crabs, decapod shrimp and lyssianasid amphipods, consume both types of carcasses. These rapid jellyfish carrion consumption rates suggest that the contribution of gelatinous material to organic fluxes may be seriously underestimated in some regions, because jelly falls may disappear much more rapidly than previously thought. Our results also demonstrate that the energy contained in gelatinous carrion can be efficiently incorporated into large numbers of deep-sea scavengers and food webs, lessening the expected impacts (e.g. smothering of the seafloor) of enhanced jellyfish production on deep-sea ecosystems and pelagic-benthic coupling.

Keywords: biological pump; deep sea; jellyfish carcasses; metazoans; scavenging.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Mean number of scavengers in the S. scombrus (a), P. periphylla (thawed and fresh) (b and c, respectively) and C. capillata (d) experiments as a function of time at the seafloor. Black lines and grey shading denote mean number of M. glutinosa ± 95% CIs; red line and shading denote mean number of M. tenuimana ± 95% CIs, and blue line and shading denote mean number of decapod shrimp ± 95% CIs. Note different y-axis scales.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Estimated mean number of Orchomenella obtusa in the S. scombrus (a), P. periphylla (thawed and fresh) (b and c, respectively) and C. capillata (d) experiments as a function of time at the seafloor. Black lines and grey shading denote mean number ± 95% CIs.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Myxine glutinosa scavengers swarming at the S. scombrus bait (a). M. glutinosa voraciously feeding on thawed P. periphylla bait (b). M. glutinosa and M. tenuimana feeding on a single fresh P. periphylla carcass (c). M. tenuimana and decapod shrimp feeding on thawed C. capillata bait (d). The black bait plate is 50 × 50 cm with gridlines separated by 5 cm.
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