Abstract
Mass aggregations of the hydromedusae Tiaropsis multicirrata and Rathkea octopunctata have been studied in the Jarnyshnaya Fjord on the Kola Penninsula during the period of domination of the summer neritic plankton complex. The mass aggregations persist at least over periods of 2 months. No hyrometereological parameters could be established that would conceivably favour such aggregations. The factor most likely responsible for creating the aggregations is assumed to be related to the stable level of the summer zooplankton, production in the study area. The vast individual numbers of hydromedusae as well as their polyphageous feeding behaviour and high growth rates suggest that the medusae represent the most substantial consumers of plankton in inshore waters. The low and highly variable percent of medusae individuals which reveal food in their intestinal system lead the authors to assume additional food sources: nannoplankton, bacteria, and dissolved organic matter.
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Communicated by M. E. Vinogradov, Moscow
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Zelickman, E.A., Gelfand, V.I. & Shifrin, M.A. Growth, reproduction and nutrition of some Barents Sea hydromedusae in natural aggregations. Mar. Biol. 4, 167–173 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393889
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393889