| dc.description.abstract | One of the most common jellyfish genera are the cnidarian scyphozoans Aurelia spp. They are spread across most of our oceans and seas, have a complex life cycle and are a bloom forming species. Jellyfish blooms are perceived by humans as a sign of degenerating oceans. They have been gaining public attention for the past couple of decades across the globe for disrupting major human activities and inflicting heavy economic costs. Still, very little is understood about their life history and solutions to blooms are still underdeveloped. An inevitable step to better manage such resources is the tracking of populations and the prediction of blooms. This study takes a closer look at the population dynamics of Aurelia spp.. By conducting a systematic literature review, I investigate the availability of demographic rates belonging to this genus and their distribution across different species of Aurelia and multiple geographic locations. I then use the captured demographic rates to develop predictive models, using ordinary differential equations, that simulate the life history of virtual Aurelia spp. populations. I discern a scarcity of publications dealing with Aurelia demography, unevenly spread across multiple variables. Nevertheless, meta-analyses showed little variability between estimates of the same demographic rates in the captured data. Model simulations of this demographic data highlighted trends and tendencies of increasing numbers of jellyfish. The gaps of knowledge were identified and improvements of the models to become management tools were suggested. | |
