RUI: Collaborative Research: What's their impact?: Quantification of medusan feeding mechanics as a tool for predicting medusan predation

在世界上许多地区，水母的数量正在增加，有时会导致破坏性的繁殖。它们的快速生长和高摄食率使它们成为海洋生态系统中的重要捕食者，它们对生态系统和人类活动的影响日益引起人们的关注。不幸的是，科学家们目前还不了解决定水母吃哪种猎物以及它们吃多少猎物的因素。这提出了一个日益重要的知识差距，因为水母经历了令人费解的种群波动和入侵新的环境。在这个项目中，研究人员将根据水母的形态、行为和大小，对决定水母吃什么、吃多少的因素有一个强有力的了解。对它们的进食过程的基本了解将使研究人员能够使用简单的水母特征来预测不同类型水母的生态影响。该项目将包括研究一个研究不足的群体，根茎水母，它代表了许多记录的水华事件和地理扩展。此外，这些技术足够强大，可以在其他水母物种和其他远洋生物的物理-生物相互作用研究中有更广泛的应用。参与这项合作的主要研究人员主要来自本科院校。学生参与的项目将包括几个本科生在提案的每一年。通过在海洋生物实验室的暑期研究，本科生将接触到广泛的研究，并沉浸在研究生的环境中，这将强烈影响他们对科学职业的看法。剑虫科的营养影响是国际上广泛关注的课题，我们的研究成果将与广泛的同行交流，为国际科学对话做出贡献。此外，我们将利用我们与媒体的联系（如PBS的生命形态系列，新英格兰水族馆的神奇水母展览），向公众传播我们的新发现。本项目的目的是量化控制相遇后捕获过程的变量，以便能够根据不同桨水母的形态特征和大小预测其猎物选择模式和清除率潜力。为了实现这一目标，pi将使用实验室和现场录像和光学技术来量化实验室和野外个体与猎物相互作用的结果。对遭遇后捕获过程的逐步量化将使他们能够量化不同猎物类型的捕获效率，并确定该过程的哪些阶段对确定遭遇结果最具影响力。研究人员将利用这些定量观察，将水母形态和刺丝囊特性联系起来，以捕获效率。这将使它们能够预测猎物的选择模式。这些预测将与基于流量的遭遇模型相结合，预测不同种类水母在不同猎物条件下的清除率潜力和猎物选择。最后，研究人员将通过实验室瓶孵育研究来验证我们的预测，量化水母对不同猎物组合的猎物选择和清除率。一旦实现，这项研究将为海洋生态学家提供关键的“缺失环节”，以便能够模拟和预测水母种群在所有环境中的生态影响。

In many areas around the world jellyfish population abundances are increasing and, at times, result in destructive blooms. Their rapid growth and high feeding rates make them important predators in marine ecosystems and their effects on ecosystems and human activities have increasingly raised concerns. Unfortunately, scientists do not currently understand the factors that determine which types of prey jellyfish eat and how much prey they eat. This presents a knowledge gap of increasing importance as jellyfish undergo inexplicable population fluctuations and invade new environments. In this project the investigators will develop a robust understanding of the factors that determine who and how much jellyfish consume based on their morphology, behavior and size. This fundamental understanding of their feeding process will enable researchers to use simple jellyfish characteristics to predict the ecological impact of different types of jellyfish. This project will include the studying of a greatly under-studied group, rhizostome jellyfish, which represents many of the recorded bloom events and geographic expansions. Further, these techniques are sufficiently robust to have broader use in the study of physical-biological interactions for other jellyfish species and other pelagic organisms. The principal investigators participating in this collaboration are from primarily undergraduate institutions. Student participation in the project will involve several undergraduates during each year of the proposal. Through summer research at the Marine Biology Laboratory, undergraduate students will become exposed to a wide range of research and become immersed in a post-graduate environment that can strongly influence their perception of the scientific profession. The trophic impacts of scyphomedusae are subjects of broad international interest and results of our research will be exchanged with a wide range of colleagues, contributing to international scientific dialogue. In addition, we will use our contacts with media (e.g. PBS Shape of Life series, Fantastic Jellies exhibit at the New England Aquarium) involved in scientific education of the general public to communicate our new findings.The goal of this project is to quantify the variables that control the post-encounter capture process in order to be able to predict the prey selection patterns and clearance rate potential of different rowing medusae based upon their morphological characteristics and size. To achieve this goal, the PIs will use laboratory and in situ videography and optics techniques to quantify the outcome of individual interactions with prey in the lab and in the field. Step-by-step quantification of the post-encounter capture process will enable them to quantify capture efficiencies of different prey types and determine which stages of the process were most influential in determining the outcome of the encounter. The investigators will use these quantitative observations to relate medusan morphology and nematocyst properties to capture efficiencies. This will allow them to predict prey selection patterns. These predictions will be combined with flow-based encounter models to predict clearance rate potential and prey selection of different medusan species under different prey conditions. Finally, the investigators will validate our predictions using laboratory bottle incubation studies to quantify prey selection and clearance rates of medusae fed different prey assemblages. When achieved, this study will provide marine ecologists with the critical "missing links" to be able to model and predict the ecological impact of medusae populations in all environments.