Download Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884

Aquatic Invasions (2009) Volume 4, Issue 3: 481-483
DOI 10.3391/ai.2009.4.3.6
© 2009 The Author(s)
Journal compilation © 2009 REABIC (http://www.reabic.net)
This is an Open Access article
Short communication
Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884 (Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae:
Mastigiidae) reappeared off the Mediterranean coast of Israel
Bella S. Galil 1* , Limor Shoval 1 and Menachem Goren 2
1
National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, POB 8030, Haifa 31080, Israel
Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
E-mail: [email protected] (BSG), [email protected] (LS), [email protected] (MG)
*
Corresponding author
2
Received 5 August 2009; accepted in revised form 7 August 2009; published online 13 August 2009
Abstract
A shoal of the Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata, native to the southwestern Pacific, was spotted on July 27, 2009
off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Several recent records suggest that the vessel-transported species may have established a
reproducing population.
Key words: Phyllorhiza punctata, Mastigiidae, jellyfish, alien, Mediterranean, Israel
Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884 is
indigenous to the tropical western Pacific
(Graham et al. 2003), and was not recorded
outside the Indo-Pacific Ocean until the mid 20th
century. In the 1950s a large but short-lived
population of a new species, Mastigias scintillae
Moreira, 1961, which later was considered
synonymous with P. punctata, was described off
southern Brazil (Mianzan and Cornelius 1999;
Migotto et al. 2002; Haddad and Nogueira 2006).
By the early 1970s P. punctata was established
within a few isolated Caribbean lagoon systems
(Cutress 1973), and in 1981 it was reported off
California (Larson and Arneson 1990). In 1991 it
reappeared off Bahia in northern Brazil (Silveira
and Cornelius 2000), and subsequently spread
northwards to Ceará and southwards to Santa
Catarina (Haddad and Nogueira 2006). In the
Gulf of Mexico it was first recorded in 1993. A
massive population explosion occurred in the
summer of 2000 off Alabama, Mississippi, and
Louisiana, spreading in the following summer to
the Indian River Lagoon, Florida (Graham et al.
2003), but no irruption have been detected since.
The fishery losses of that invasion were
estimated at several million dollars, primarily
due to net damages, a significant reduction in the
shrimp harvest and predation on pelagic fish
eggs and bivalve larvae (Graham et al. 2003).
The native habitat of P. punctata is in tropical
western
Pacific
estuaries
and
lagoons
(Rippingale and Kelly 1995). Tolerant of a wide
range of salinity and temperature, it has
flourished when introduced to bodies of water of
fluctuating salinities and temperatures and high
productivity (Garcia and Durbin 1993).
Phyllorhiza punctata harbors endosymbiotic
zooxanthellae throughout its native range and in
certain introduced localities, giving the bell a
brownish tint. The photosynthetic zooxanthellae
likely fulfill a large proportion of its nutritional
needs (Garcia and Durbin 2003). However, the
population in Gulf of Mexico lacked endosymbiotic zooxanthellae, making it wholly zooplanktivorous (Graham et al. 2003).
The first record of P. punctata in the Mediterranean Sea dates back to 1965, and consists of
a single specimen collected off the coast of Israel
(Galil et al. 1990). In 2005 and 2006 P. punctata
ephyrae and medusae were collected off Lefkada
Island on the Ionian coast of Greece, but the
population has apparently occurred there for a
number of years (Abed-Navandi and Kikinger
2007).
481
B.S. Galil et al.
In July 2009, 8 specimens (bell diameter 1524 cm) were collected by a bottom trawler off
Ashdod, Israel at water depth of 20 m
(31º48.2'N, 34º36.7'E), and 4 specimens (bell
diameter 13-17 cm) at depth of 40 m (31º49.4'N,
34º33.2'E). The specimens are deposited in the
National Collections of Natural History at Tel
Aviv University (TAU Co 34567) (Figures 1 and
2). Four of the specimens display mature gonads.
Examination of the collections revealed an
earlier unpublished specimen collected intertidally off Shikmona (lat. 32º49.3'N, long. 34º57'
E) (TAU Co 34568), in January 2005, following
a winter storm (Figures 3 and 4), and two
specimens (bell diameter 12, 13.5 cm) collected
off Kiryat Yam, Haifa Bay (lat. 32º50.7'N, long.
34º38'E), 14 October 2006 (TAU Co 34569).
Whereas the earliest specimen contained zooxanthellae, the later specimens were all devoid
of zooxanthellae, and either pale or dark blue in
colour.
Figure 1. The Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza
punctata, collected off Ashdod, 40 m, July 2009 (TAU Co
34567). Photo by L. Shoval
Figure 2. The Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza
punctata, collected off Ashdod, 40 m, July 2009 (TAU Co
34567). Photo by L. Shoval
482
The sea surface salinity of the coastal waters
of the southern Levantine Sea in the summer
months tops 39.5 PSU (I. Gertman, pers.
comm.), and the temperature – 31.5ºC (L.
Raskin, pers. comm.), whereas in December it
drops to 17ºC. The upper layer, to depth of 100
m, is mixed in most winters, whereas during the
remainder of the year a sharp halocline and
thermocline begins at 10 m depth.
In 2006, 13,000 merchant vessels made
252,000 calls at Mediterranean ports and an
additional 10,000 vessels transited through the
sea (REMPEC/WG.29/INF.9). With the exception of the South Pacific and the Northeast
Pacific “… the Mediterranean is connected by
considerable sea trade with most global regions.”
(CIESM 2002: 6). An increase in shippingrelated invasions was noted in recent
publications: one fifth of the alien species
recorded in the Mediterranean have been
primarily introduced by vessels (Galil 2009).
Figure 3. The Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza
punctata, collected off Shikmona, intertidal, January 2005
(TAU Co 34568). Photo by S. Usvyatsov
Figure 4. The Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza
punctata, collected off Shikmona, intertidal, January 2005
(TAU Co 34568). Photo by S. Usvyatsov
Phyllorhiza punctata off the Mediterranean coast of Israel
The rise was attributed to the growth in shipping
volume throughout the Mediterranean, changing
trade patterns that result in new shipping routes,
improved water quality in port environments,
augmented opportunities for overlap with other
introduction vectors, and rising awareness and
research effort (CIESM 2002; Galil 2006).
Though the inbound commercial traffic arrives
through the Straits of Gibraltar (81%) and the
Suez Canal (19%), the native range of vesseltransported alien taxa recorded in the Mediterranean is most commonly the Indo-Pacific
Ocean (30%), pantropical (17%), and the Indian
Ocean (15%). However, the native range is not
necessarily the area of origin of the Mediterranean populations as propagules may have been
introduced from established alien populations
elsewhere (secondary introductions). Phyllorhiza
punctata may have been transported via vessels
arriving from tropical western Atlantic ports (8%
of the Gibraltar inbound vessels originate in
Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Central American ports) (CIESM 2002), or in the fouling of
vessels arriving from Southeast Asia through the
Suez Canal. It is widely believed that
transportation of the sessile polyp stages on ship
hulls or drilling rigs is the likely dispersal
method (Larson and Arneson 1990; Bolton and
Graham 2004). The occurrence of P. punctata
near Ashdod and Haifa, next to the two largest
harbours along the Mediterranean coast of Israel,
suggests that it is indeed plausible.
The bipartite life history of P. punctata, with
an asexually reproducing benthic polyp and a
sexually reproducing pelagic medusa, allows it
to remain cryptic for extended periods and irrupt
when environmental variables are opportune.
The presence of sexually mature specimens
throughout the year (January, July, October)
indicates the presence of an established
population.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Levi Ornoy, the captain of FV
Moti, Sima Usvyatsov and Moti Mendelsohn,
who collected the scyphozoans, and Monty
Graham for clarifying the taxonomic position of
the Brazilian population. Publication of this
paper is supported by the Regional Euro-Asian
Biological
Invasions
Centre
(REABIC,
http://www.reabic.net).
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