Aurelia coerulea or Asian moon jelly is a species of moon jelly in the genus Aurelia.[1] This species is native to the seas off Japan, China, Korea, and California, as well as the Mediterranean and other temperate seas. and they can also be found in coastal areas of China, Korea, California, the Mediterranean and other temperate seas. It is particularly abundant in artificial habitats and sheltered regions. It has a very high reproductive rate which can cause blooming events. A.coerulea blooming causes problems such as impairing fisheries, clogging the nuclear power plants and disrupting the local zooplankton abundance. The chemical compounds the species secretes as a self-defense mechanism can be used for pharmaceutical purposes.
| Aurelia coerulea | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Class: | Scyphozoa |
| Order: | Semaeostomeae |
| Family: | Ulmaridae |
| Genus: | Aurelia |
| Species: | A. coerulea
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| Binomial name | |
| Aurelia coerulea von Lendenfeld, 1884
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| Synonyms | |
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Aurelia japonica Kishinouye, 1891 | |
Habitat
editA.coerulea are mainly distributed in culture ponds, artificial reefs, lagoons, marinas, and other cold and shady artificial constructions for settlement and proliferation.[2][3] They are weak swimmers so those structures can protect the polyps from being washed away.[2] Hypoxia in coastal waters induces stress and disrupts life cycles of the benthic organisms, but A.coerulea polyps are more tolerant than some other competitors under low dissolved oxygen level, so their population increase while others left due to stress.[4] A.coerulea like ambient temperature, disrupted temperature and salinity will bring detrimental effects to them.[5][6][7][8]
Blooming
editIt has been reported that blooming of the A.coerulea medusae clogged cooling water intakes and increased shut down frequency of nuclear power plants.[9] Also, blooming occur in eutrophic embayments disrupts the local zooplankton abundance.[10] Planktonic ciliates are abundant in eutrophic embayments, the A.coerulea polyp and ephyra actively devour and assimilate ciliates until medusa stage, medusa then prey on mesozooplankton and macrozooplankton. The ephyra can tolerate long period of starvation and grow to medusa in spring with better food conditions. The high abundance of medusae decreases mesozooplankton and macrozooplankton but increases microzooplankton population, which will later become the food source for A.coerulea polyps, resulting in another bloom as a cycle.[10]
Life cycle
editA.coerulea has two life cycles, the metagenetic life cycle and direct development life cycle, it can alternate life cycle strategies based on environmental conditions.[11]
In metagenetic life cycle, the A.coerulea planula turns into polyp then attach to substrates for up to half a year till strobilation. Under warm condition, the polyps will reproduce asexually, under cold condition, the polyps will grow then strobilate. Some disadvantages of this life cycle is that the polyps have to compete for space and beware of predation.[11]
In direct development life cycle, A.coerulea planula turns into ephyra, ephyra stage has longer longevity and higher chance to find substrates to settle down. While this stage has low mortality but their population growth is lower as compared to the other life cycle.[11]
Potential uses
editA.coerulea lives in bacteria rich habitat, it secretes phenolic compound, which is known for its antioxidant property in nature. Also it has been reported that it shows lysozyme-like activity in its oral arms, umbrella tissues and mucus. Those unique mechanisms can be contributing to their self-defense system against bacteria. Extraction of those compounds can be used for biotechnological and pharmaceutical purposes.[3]
References
edit- ^ Collins, A. G.; Jarms, G.; Morandini, A. C. (2022). "World List of Scyphozoa. Aurelia coerulea von Lendenfeld, 1884". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Dong, Zhijun; et al. (2018). "Artificial Reefs for Sea Cucumber Aquaculture Confirmed as Settlement Substrates of the Moon Jellyfish Aurelia Coerulea". Hydrobiologia. 818 (1): 223–234. doi:10.1007/s10750-018-3615-y. S2CID 4795258.
- ^ a b Stabili, Loredana; et al. (2021). "Jellyfish Bioprospecting in the Mediterranean Sea: Antioxidant and Lysozyme-Like Activities from Aurelia Coerulea (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa) Extracts". Marine Drugs. 19 (11): 619. doi:10.3390/md19110619. PMC 8625557. PMID 34822490.
- ^ Jin, Hongsung; et al. (2021). "Dissolved Oxygen-and Temperature-Dependent Simulation of the Population Dynamics of Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia Coerulea) Polyps". Diversity. 13 (5): 184. doi:10.3390/d13050184.
- ^ Marques, Raquel; et al. (2019). "Dynamics and Asexual Reproduction of the Jellyfish Aurelia Coerulea Benthic Life Stage in the Thau Lagoon (Northwestern Mediterranean)". Marine Biology. 166 (6): 1–14. Bibcode:2019MarBi.166...74M. doi:10.1007/s00227-019-3522-4. S2CID 164944239.
- ^ Lee, Sun-Hee; et al. (2021). "Contrasting Effects of Regional and Local Climate on the Interannual Variability and Phenology of the Scyphozoan, Aurelia Coerulea and Nemopilema Nomurai in the Korean Peninsula". Diversity. 13 (5): 214. doi:10.3390/d13050214.
- ^ Dong, Zhijun; et al. (2018). "Effects of Salinity and Temperature on the Recruitment of Aurelia Coerulea Planulae". Marine Biology Research. 14 (5): 454–61. Bibcode:2018MBioR..14..454D. doi:10.1080/17451000.2018.1459725. S2CID 90936268.
- ^ Dong, Zhijun; Sun, Tingting (2018). "Combined effects of ocean acidification and temperature on planula larvae of the moon jellyfish Aurelia coerulea". Marine Environmental Research. 139: 144–150. Bibcode:2018MarER.139..144D. doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.05.015. PMID 29789135.
- ^ Feng, Song; et al. (2018). "Strobilation of Three Scyphozoans (Aurelia Coelurea, Nemopilema Nomurai, and Rhopilema Esculentum) in the Field at Jiaozhou Bay, China". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 591: 141–53, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26502942. Bibcode:2018MEPS..591..141F. doi:10.3354/meps12276.
- ^ a b Kamiyama, T. (2018). "Planktonic ciliates as food for the scyphozoan Aurelia coerulea: feeding and growth responses of ephyra and metephyra stages". Journal of Oceanography. 74 (1): 53–63. Bibcode:2018JOce...74...53K. doi:10.1007/s10872-017-0438-9. S2CID 90614849.
- ^ a b c Suzuki, Kentaro S.; et al. (2019). "Seasonal Alternation of the Ontogenetic Development of the Moon Jellyfish Aurelia Coerulea in Maizuru Bay, Japan". PLOS ONE. 14 (11): e0225513. Bibcode:2019PLoSO..1425513S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0225513. PMC 6872181. PMID 31751435.