JBS-06 Pelagic tunicates blooms: an interdisciplinary approach

 

Pelagic tunicates are gelatinous herbivorous plankton adapted to effectively grow in patchy and temporally variable environments. Although all groups, including Larvacea, Salpida, Pyrosomida and Doliolida are quite different, they share some feeding and reproduction traits. These unique characteristics allow them to increase in abundance and efficiently feed on algal blooms and other heterotrophic microplankton. The ephemeral massive appearance of pelagic tunicates has a relevant effect on the biochemical cycles. Nevertheless, little is known about some fields such as population genetics or ecological strategies behind what triggers the bloom, especially in groups like Pyrosomida or Doliolida. This session wants to bring together researchers that work on physiology, genetics, behavior and modeling to study either spatial or temporal scales of different pelagic tunicate families. We hope this approach will give a better understanding on how pelagic tunicates blooms can be influenced by changing environmental conditions and how this changes can affect marine ecosystems.

 

Chairs:

Laurence P. Madin - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA)

Maria Pascual - Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC (Spain)