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High activity and Lévy searches: jellyfish can search the water column like fish
journal contribution
posted on 2012-02-07, 00:00 authored by Graeme HaysGraeme Hays, T Bastian, T K Doyle, S Fossette, A C Gleiss, M B Gravenor, V J Hobson, N E Humphries, M K S Lilley, N G Pade, D W SimsOver-fishing may lead to a decrease in fish abundance and a proliferation of jellyfish. Active movements and prey search might be thought to provide a competitive advantage for fish, but here we use data-loggers to show that the frequently occurring coastal jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus) does not simply passively drift to encounter prey. Jellyfish (327 days of data from 25 jellyfish with depth collected every 1 min) showed very dynamic vertical movements, with their integrated vertical movement averaging 619.2 m d(-1), more than 60 times the water depth where they were tagged. The majority of movement patterns were best approximated by exponential models describing normal random walks. However, jellyfish also showed switching behaviour from exponential patterns to patterns best fitted by a truncated Lévy distribution with exponents (mean μ=1.96, range 1.2-2.9) close to the theoretical optimum for searching for sparse prey (μopt≈2.0). Complex movements in these 'simple' animals may help jellyfish to compete effectively with fish for plankton prey, which may enhance their ability to increase in dominance in perturbed ocean systems.
History
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: biological sciencesVolume
279Issue
1728Pagination
465 - 473Publisher
Royal Society PublishingLocation
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
0962-8452eISSN
1471-2954Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal articleCopyright notice
2012, Royal Society PublishingUsage metrics
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No categories selectedKeywords
AnimalsEcosystemGastrointestinal ContentsModels, BiologicalMotor ActivityMovementPredatory BehaviorScyphozoaSeasonsTelemetryWalesplankton thin layersLasker’s stable ocean hypothesiszooplanktonsuperdiffusionbiologgingScience & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineBiologyEcologyEvolutionary BiologyLife Sciences & Biomedicine - Other TopicsEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyLasker's stable ocean hypothesisVERTICAL MOVEMENTSBOX JELLYFISHBEHAVIORBIOVOLUMEPATTERNSCNIDARIASUCCESSCONTEXTMODELS
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