The second JellyFarm cruise of 2015 set out to retrieve, service and redeploy sediment traps in the Lurefjorden and Masfjorden. Both traps had been unfortunately caught by a trawling vessel. Making these redeployments will ensure that minimal data is lost from the sediment trap study.
The JellyFarm sediment trap study aims to quantify jellyfish organic material falling to the deep fjord seafloor ecosystem. Organic material derived from jellyfish have an enriched isotopic δ13C signature compared to phytoplankton and zooplankton. To study the affects of organic material entering the benthic environment from jelly fall events, sediment traps were deployed in the Marsfjorden, a fish dominated fjord ecosystem (The name Marsfjorden means “the one full of food ie. fish”) and the Lurefjorden, a fjord heavily populated by the jellyfish Periphylla periphylla.
The team consisted of Leon Pedersen, Dr Andrew Sweetman (International Research Institute Stavanger (IRIS)) and Dr Catherine Boccadoro (IRIS). Postdoctoral researcher Dr Kathy Dunlop (IRIS) joins the JellyFarm team from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, California, where she worked with the Pelagic Benthic Coupling Group. Kathy will work with the JellyFarm project for three years and will specifically focus on the influence of jelly falls on scavenger and fluid dynamics in the fjords.
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