Jelly Farm Box Coring Cruise Hardangerfjorden

Amalia Mailli and Melissa Brandner from Nord University setting up to collect samples for the Metabenthogenomics Project. 

RV Solvik docked at Rosendal after a day collecting cores on Hardangerfjorden 

Solvik returning to Rosendal for the cores to be transported to IRIS, Stavanger, for the JellyFarm benthic core experiments.  

Dr Kathy Dunlop after a day of box coring 

Gemini Coring 

JellyFarm box coring team Kathy Dunlop, Melissa Brander, Hector Andrade, Lars Birkeland Sjetre and Captain Leon Pedersen. 

Sediment Trap Cruise. Updates from the JellyFarm Work Package 1.

On 19th August the JellyFarm team Dr Andrew Sweetman (Heriot Watt University, Scotland), Dr Catherine Lalande (Laval University,  Quebec City), Dr Kathy Dunlop, Dr Wenting Chan (NIVA, Norway) and RV Solvik skipper Leon Pedersen set out to continue the work on JellyFarm Work Package 1.

Successful sediment trap retrievals were made in Lurefjorden and Masfjorden where the traps have been collecting falling detrital samples since Aug 2015.  Traps were redeployed in Hardangerfjorden where they will collect data for a further year to quantify fluxes of jellyfish POC.

RV Solvik in Hardangerfjorden loaded with sediment trap equipment

Dr Catherine Lalande (University of Quebec, Canada) and Dr Andrew Sweetman (Heriot Watt University, Scotland) ready to deploy the sediment trap

Site Survey Time-Lapse

Scavenger Lander Deployment

Solvik time-lapse

Scavenger Traps

Scavenger traps (baited with dead Periphylla) were deployed at the same position as the camera lander after lander retrieval.  This was to allow us to collect specimens of the same species of scavengers observed in the camera lander images.

Dan Jones collecting specimens from the scavenger traps.

An isopod found in a trap.

An amphipod still feeding on a jellyfish mesoglea after being removed from the trap.

14th June 2016. Scavenger Cruise

Andrew with the enormous Cusk (Brosme brosme)

Deep-sea fishing on Solvik. 

500 m Camera Deployment

Stop over at Potten. 

Andrew Sweetman baiting the camera lander

Lander deployment at 500 m in Sognefjorden 

Returning from an evening hike in Krakhella

13th June. Deployment 1

The first deployment of the cruise was made to 1250 m in Sognefjorden.  The lander was baited with 2 dead Periphylla jellyfish and we are interested to learn which scavangers will feed on the jellyfall and especially how the feeding dynamics of scavengers will change with depth.  There is more food available at shallower depths so we hypothesise that more scavengers will eat jellyfalls at deeper depths where other food is scarce.

Baiting the lander with dead Periphylla 

In Lurefjorden, January 2016, we found that low oxygen was likely to be reducing scavenging rates on jellyfalls.  Therefore, the scavenger lander bait plate was modified to hold oxygen optodes to measure oxygen in relation to distance from the jellyfish.  

Lander ready to be deployed. 

Future deployment sites were surveyed using a sonar and CTD. 

Preparing the lander. 12th June.

The camera scavenger lander was prepared on Sunday evening when MS Solvik arrived in Brekke, Sognefjorden.

MS Solvik arrives in Brekke, Sognefjorden. 

Scavenger lander frame. Brekke Sognefjorden. 

Preparing the deep-sea camera system. Rated to a depth of 6000 m 

Test deployment on Sunday evening. 

Sogneforden Scavenger Cruise. Cruise Participants

Andrew Sweetman, Heriot Watt University, UK

Kathy Dunlop, International Research Institute of Stavanger, Norway and Heriot Watt University

Dan Jones, National Oceanography Centre, UK 

Captain Leon Pedersen, MS Solvik. 

Lurefjorden Catching Jellyfish. 11th June 2016

The RV Solvik returned to Lurefjorden to catch Periphylla jellyfish to use as bait for the deep-sea scavenger lander cruise in Sognefjorden.  

60 Periphylla were caught on Saturday evening and Sunday morning near Hundvin, Lurefjorden.  20 Periphylla were also dissected for their gonads and sensory organs for Graihagh Hardinge at the Natural History Museum, London to help with ageing  Periphylla.  

Jellyfish Bloom Symposium

The 5th International Jellyfish Bloom Symposium was held at Barcelona aquarium this June.  Andrew Sweetman, Kathy Dunlop and Paul Renaud chaired a session on `Post-bloom impacts on the marine environment´.
Some of the first results from the JellyFarm Project were presented in the oral presentations:

Paul Renaud, Kathy Dunlop and Andrew Sweetman at Barcelona Aquarium for the Jellyfish Bloom Symposium.

Andrew Sweetman:  Jellyfish decomposition at the seafloor can rapidly alter biogeochemical cycling and substantially modify carbon flow through benthic food-webs.

Kathy Dunlop:  Experimental flume studies into the modification of benthic booundary layer flow by jellyfall carcasses.

A poster was presented on describing the JellyFarm Project by Paul.  

Kathy also presented a poster on the deepest salp fall recorded during a cruise on the RV Sonne in Equatorial Pacific.  This work describes how the troughs created by experimental deep-sea mining were concentrating carbon input to the abyss from salp falls.  

Large Jelly Fall in the Flume

A large jellyfall is created in the NIOZ flume using mimic jellyfish.  The jellyfish cover 1/4 of the surface area of the experimental flume space. 

Freshly prepared mimic jellies 

NIOZ adv sampling the fluid velocity and turbidity around the mimic jellyfall. 

NIOZ Cheesecake Bakeoff

A bit of baking as a break from the flume.  Even better when everyone at NIOZ can benefit and an opportunity to say thank you for another great visit.  

The competitors

NIOZ Flume

Mimic jellyfish in the flume at NIOZ ready for some profiling to examine the effects of jellyfish carcasses on fluid dynamics.  

Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter collected data on the flow velocities around a mimic jellyfish 

Flow velocities are being measured around mimic jellyfish in the NIOZ flume to determine the effect of the fall of jellyfish carcasses on the benthic environment.  Our aim is to create flow conditions similar to those found in the deep fjords of Norway inside the flume (slow flows between 2 and 10 cm per second).

The Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) is on a robotic arm that allows velocity profiles to be made all around and above the jellyfish carcass.  

Artificial Jellyfish Production

Artificial Jellyfish Flume Experiments

The effect of jellyfish carcasses on fluid dynamics at the seafloor has not been investigated.  Therefore, in April Kathy Dunlop is conducting experiments in flume at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ).  

First the board on which to place the artificial jellyfish (made of moulded agar) was made and an artificial jellyfish tested in the flume to ensure that it didn't float.

Creating the experimental board to insert into the flume. 

First artificial jellyfish in the flume