A study published in the journal Biology Letters this week, led by Dr Licandro at SAHFOS and Dr Richard Kirby, a Royal Society Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, has shown how climate change could explain recent swarms of a highly venomous jellyfish just off the UK coastline in the Northeast Atlantic.

By studying plankton samples collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder Licandro, Kirby and collaborators have shown that the warm-water jellyfish called Pelagia noctiluca appears to be the main species present when large blooms of jellyfish occur in the Northeast Atlantic, Atlantic between 45°N to 58° N and 1° to 26° W.

The two scientists suggest that invasive swarms of Pelagia noctiluca in the Northeast Atlantic between 45°N to 58° N and 1° to 26° W may result from a combination of warmer sea temperatures and climate driven changes in surface ocean currents.

Outbreaks of P. noctiluca correspond with a greater northward incursion of surface water from mid-temperate latitudes in the Northeast Atlantic, determined by climate change.In collaboration with co-workers from the Mediterranean, Licandro and Kirby suggest that an increase in sea temperature is likely to influence jellyfish abundance by affecting their reproduction, since it is known that P. noctiluca and similar jellyfish reproduce more quickly in warmer waters.

Link to journal article: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/04/01/rsbl.2010.0150.full?sid=f19193e4-a5a5-4708-a7a4-bad01ab3727d