Swimming and Feeding by the Scyphomedusa Chrysaora Quinquecirrha
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Marine Biology (1997) 129: 355±362 Ó Springer-Verlag 1997 M. D. Ford á J. H. Costello á K. B. Heidelberg J. E. Purcell Swimming and feeding by the scyphomedusa Chrysaora quinquecirrha Received: 29 March 1997 / Accepted: 11 April 1997 Abstract The semaeostome scyphomedusa, Chrysaora the eastern USA during the summer. At these times, quinquecirrha (Desor, 1848), is an abundant and im- C. quinquecirrha consumes a variety of zooplankton and portant planktonic predator in estuaries and coastal can directly in¯uence copepod populations (Purcell waters of the eastern USA during the summer. We 1992, but see Purcell et al. 1994b), ®sh eggs and larvae videotaped free-swimming medusae in the laboratory (Cowan and Houde 1993; Purcell et al. 1994a) and and in the ®eld in order to determine the relationship ctenophores (Miller 1974; Purcell and Cowan 1995). between swimming motions and prey encounter with Indirect eects of predation by C. quinquecirrha have capture surfaces. Medusae were collected from the been suggested to play a major role in the structure and Choptank River (Chesapeake Bay) in September 1992 function of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem (Feigenbaum and in the Niantic River, Connecticut, USA in July and Kelly 1984; Baird and Ulanowicz 1989). Because 1994. We used newly hatched Artemia sp. nauplii and this medusa consumes such a wide variety of prey types, ¯uorescein dye to trace water motions around swimming it may appear that C. quinquecirrha is a generalist feeder medusae. Swimming results in a pulsed series of toroids with few patterns of prey selection, but in one study which travel along the medusan oral arms and tentacles. C. quinquecirrha selected adult copepods (Purcell 1992), Prey are entrained in this ¯ow and the location of in another ®sh eggs and larvae (Purcell et al. 1994a), and naupliar encounter was in¯uenced by the phase of the in another avoided veliger larvae (Purcell et al. 1991). pulsation cycle during which entrainment occurred. The mechanisms of these selection patterns remain un- Flow-®eld velocities, measured by tracking particles de®ned. adjacent to the bell margin during contraction, increased Recent studies of water ¯ow patterns created by with bell diameter. swimming scyphomedusae have established a mechani- cal basis for understanding prey selection of several other scyphomedusan species (Costello and Colin 1994, Introduction 1995; Sullivan et al. 1994). These studies indicate that scyphomedusae consume taxonomically diverse prey The semaeostome medusa, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, united by a common vulnerability to entrainment in is abundant in estuaries and near-coastal waters of medusa-generated ¯uid motions. These ¯ow patterns bring prey into contact with nematocyst-laden capture surfaces of the scyphomedusa so that prey capture is a selective process that is strongly in¯uenced by the initial means of encounter with prey. Communicated by J.P. Grassle, New Brunswick This issue is signi®cant because the mechanics of prey M.D. Ford1 á J.H. Costello (&) capture varies among cnidarian predators, strongly in- Biology Department, Providence College, ¯uencing their prey selection and, hence, ecosystem im- Providence, Rhode Island 02918-0001, USA pact. Many planktonic cnidarian predators are primarily K.B. Heidelberg á J.E. Purcell stationary foragers (e.g. siphonophores), and prey se- University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Studies, lection can be predicted from ®ltration theory (Purcell Horn Point Laboratory, P.O. Box 775, Cambridge, Maryland 21613, USA 1981) and predator morphology (Madin 1988). Scyphomedusae, including C. quinquecirrha, swim al- Present address: most continuously (Costello et al. unpublished), and 1Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, 1084 Shennecossett Road, ¯uid motions around the medusan capture surfaces Groton, Connecticut 06340, USA signi®cantly aect prey encounter and subsequent 356 capture. The oral arms and tentacles of C. quinquecirrha xi 1 xi 1 ui : trail distances equivalent to several bell diameters in the 2t wake behind a swimming medusa. The ¯ow patterns Acceleration (a) was calculated as surrounding a semaeostome with relatively short tenta- xi 1 xi 1 2xi a : cles, Aurelia aurita, have been described and related to i t2 prey capture (Costello and Colin 1994), but there are no Reynolds number (Re) was calculated as quantitative descriptions of ¯uid ¯ow around medusae du Re ; with elongate oral arms and tentacles, such as C. quin- m quecirrha. In the present study we quanti®ed the rela- where u is medusa velocity and m is the kinematic viscosity of tionship between ¯uid motions and prey capture by seawater. swimming C. quinquecirrha. Predictions based on these Quantitative description of the ¯uid motions surrounding patterns were then related to empirical prey selection Chrysaora quinquecirrha medusae required particle tracking in the ¯uid surrounding the medusae. Particle velocities were used for patterns in the ®eld. three purposes. First, to accompany the kinematic data throughout the pulsation cycles in order to clarify variations in ¯uid ¯ow during these cycles; second, to construct representative ¯ow ®elds around the medusa's body during the power and recovery strokes; Materials and methods third, to determine the in¯uence of medusa size on ¯ow velocities by comparing maximum ¯ow velocities at the bell margin (marginal Experimental organisms ¯ow) over a range of bell diameters. Depending on these goals, we varied the method of measurement. All particle tracking used 3-d- Individual Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Desor, 1848) were collected old Artemia sp. nauplii (0.3 to 0.6 mm length) as tracer particles. using a dipnet from two populations, the ®rst in the Choptank Particle velocities at the bell margin were determined during ®ve River of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA, on 1 September 1992; consecutive pulsation cycles for the same medusa used in the ki- the second in the Niantic River, Connecticut, USA, a river ¯owing nematic pro®le. Particle trajectories were measured within a square into Long Island Sound, throughout July 1994. Medusae were template having sides one quarter the bell diameter of the medusa transported to the laboratory at Providence College, Rhode Island, (1.4 cm for the 5.45 cm diameter medusa in Fig. 1) and adjacent to where they were maintained in 20-liter vessels. Video recordings of the bell margin. Six particle velocities were measured for each 20- medusan swimming and prey capture were made within 1 week of ®eld interval (1/3 s) during the ®ve consecutive pulsation cycles. collection. Medusae ranged in bell diameter from 0.8 to 8.0 cm. Flow ®elds during the power and recovery strokes were con- structed for the same medusa used in the kinematic pro®le. Particle paths were collected for a 20-®eld interval (1/3 s) following the start Microvideography of bell contraction (power stroke) and bell relaxation (recovery stroke). Flow-®eld images were taken while the camera was sta- Activities of medusae, prey and dye were observed using a backlit tionary and the medusa swam through the ®eld of view. The ¯ow optical system similar to that described previously (Costello and ®eld was constructed from several pulsation cycles because no Colin 1994). Medusae from each site were videotaped while single cycle contained enough appropriately located and focused swimming freely in 0.2 lm ®ltered seawater (21 °C) within rect- particles to describe the entire ¯ow ®eld. We measured the ¯ow ®eld angular vessels ranging in dimensions from 4.0 ´ 8.0 ´ 2.0 to by superimposing an x±y grid on a video sequence of a free- 25.5 ´ 30.5 ´ 18.5 cm (width ´ height ´ depth) and volumes from swimming medusa (Costello and Colin 1994). As the swimming 50 to 14 000 ml. Vessel choice depended upon medusa diameter medusa altered orientation, so did the x±y grid, and all particle since small medusae (<2 cm diameter) could swim freely in small velocities were measured in relation to the bell orientation. Velocity vessels but large medusae (>5 cm diameter) required larger vessels. of a particle was determined from its change in position during a A ®eld counter labeled each sequential VHS video frame (1/60 s per 20-®eld interval. ®eld) in order to provide temporal information. Spatial charac- Marginal ¯ow velocity was de®ned as the average velocity of teristics of the optical ®eld were determined from scale bars peri- particles moving over the bell margin during the initial stages of the odically included in the recordings. Interference from motions in power stroke of the pulsation cycle. The power stroke was chosen the unmeasured third dimension was minimized by limiting the for inter-medusa comparison because previous measurements had image depth of ®eld and by selecting particles in the focal plane. demonstrated that ¯ow rate was maximum during this phase. The optical system provided clear illumination of particles as well Marginal ¯ow velocity for each medusa was determined from as their movements in relationship to the medusae. particle trajectories measured within a square template in the same Alterations in bell shape were quanti®ed by the ®neness ratio, F, manner as the particle velocities collected over the ®ve pulsation where cycles described previously. Marginal ¯ow velocities of 30 medusae were compared in order to determine the relationship between bell F h=d diameter and ¯ow-®eld velocity. A rectangular template was scaled and h is bell height and d is bell diameter. Instantaneous ®neness to the individual medusa diameter; the