Freshwater jellyfish in British Columbia and beyond - knowledge gaps and current progress

Florian Lüskow, Ph.D. candidate UBC Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, will provide some insights into freshwater jellyfish species of the genus Craspedacusta , a genus that purportedly originated from the Yangtze River catchment area, China, and have now been observed on all continents except Antarctica. Sightings of C. sowerbii in British Columbia were compiled to document some of the northernmost records of this species in the Americas. Hydromedusae from BC do not deviate morphologically from C. sowerbii specimens from other continents, but molecular analyses support the idea of two main widely distributed lineages hidden under similar morphological features (i.e., a species complex). Craspedacusta sowerbii is widely distributed in southern and western BC and increased considerably in bloom frequency in the period after 2010. Recent increases in sightings of C. sowerbii in BC and worldwide could be indicative of a climate warming-related range extension or growing public awareness and/or increased observational efforts. Even after about 150 of Craspedacusta research, much about their biology and ecology remains unknown. Recent modelling studies indicated that this non-indigenous species will spread further in BC, Canada and beyond, and will become part of freshwater food webs for longer periods every year. Despite this alarming information, only little research and no provincial or federal monitoring for this species exist yet.

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