Jelly Farm Meeting 2nd – 3rd Dec 2015, University of Oslo

Some of the JellyFarm team met at the University of Oslo this week to discuss the progress of the workpackages with a particular focus on workpackage 2.  Andrew Sweetman (IRIS), Kate Boccadora (IRIS), Alessio Gomiero (IRIS), Kathy Dunlop (IRIS), Elizabeth Alve (University of Oslo), Silvia Hess (University of Oslo) and Katja Guilini (University of Gent) attended the meeting. 

Silvia Hess, Katja Guilini, Kathy Dunlop, Elizabeth Alve, Alessio Gomiero

Workpackage 2 focuses on the quantifying interactions between aquaculture and jelly-falls on organic matter cycling in fjord sediments.  It is hypothesis that organic loading from aquaculture and jelly-falls reduces the ability of benthic communities to process organic material in Norwegian fjords.  Isotope tracer studies will be used to quantify the transport of organic material through the benthic food web.  This will involve the isotopic labeling of jellyfish.  This is a very new technique and contact has been made with Berlin Aquarium to help with the supply for live jellyfish for the experiment.  An experimental plan for labeling the jellies was agreed upon and progress was made towards planning the full experiments on organic matter cycling for the Summer.