Early Warning Systems to Minimize the Risk of Box Jellyfish Stings by Empowering Stakeholders

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Early Warning Systems to Minimize the Risk of Box Jellyfish Stings by Empowering Stakeholders Final Report Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders Scott A. Condie, Lisa Gershwin, Michael Kingsford, Kylie Pitt, Anthony J. Richardson and Linda Thomas Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders Scott A. Condie1, Lisa Gershwin1, Michael Kingsford2, Kylie Pitt3, Anthony J. Richardson1 and Linda Thomas1 1 CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere 2 College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University 3 School of Environment and Science, Griffith University Supported by the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program Project 2.2.3 Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders © CSIRO, 2018 Creative Commons Attribution Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders is licensed by the CSIRO for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia licence. For licence conditions see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: 978-1-925514-29-2 This report should be cited as: Condie, S. A., Gershwin, L. A., Kingsford, M. J., Pitt, K. A., Richardson, A. J. and Thomas, L. (2018) Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited, Cairns (44pp.). Published by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre on behalf of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Tropical Water Quality (TWQ) Hub. The Tropical Water Quality Hub is part of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program and is administered by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited (RRRC). The NESP TWQ Hub addresses water quality and coastal management in the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, its catchments and other tropical waters, through the generation and transfer of world-class research and shared knowledge. This publication is copyright. The Copyright Act 1968 permits fair dealing for study, research, information or educational purposes subject to inclusion of a sufficient acknowledgement of the source. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government. While reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct, the Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication. Cover photographs: The first known Irukandji jellyfish, Carukia barnesi, periodically infests North Queensland beaches and reefs. Its sting produces life-threatening illness in its victims (© Lisa Gershwin). The presence of Irukandji jellyfish often leads to beach closures in North Queensland (© Scott Condie). This report is available for download from the NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub website: http://www.nesptropical.edu.au Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders CONTENTS Contents .................................................................................................................................. i List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ iv Acronyms .............................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. vii Executive Summary .............................................................................................................. 1 1.0 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 2 2.0 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Engagement ................................................................................................................ 3 2.2 The Australian Venomous Jellyfish Database (AVJD) .................................................. 3 2.3 Irukandji sensitivity to water quality – laboratory studies .............................................. 4 2.3.1 Sensitivity to pesticides ......................................................................................... 5 2.3.2 Sensitivity to pCO2 and ocean warming ................................................................. 6 2.4 Improved techniques for detection and identification of Irukandji .................................. 7 2.5 Relationships between environmental conditions and Irukandji .................................... 9 2.5.1 Sting and environmental data ................................................................................ 9 2.5.2 Statistical models .................................................................................................10 3.0 Results ..........................................................................................................................12 3.1 The Australian Venomous Jellyfish Database (AVJD) .................................................12 3.1.1 Geographical distribution of data ..........................................................................12 3.1.2 Seasonal distribution of data ................................................................................13 3.2 Irukandji sensitivity to water quality .............................................................................13 3.2.1 Sensitivity to pesticides ........................................................................................13 3.2.1 Sensitivity to pCO2 and ocean warming ................................................................17 3.3 Improved techniques for detection and identification of Irukandji .................................21 3.4 Relationships between Irukandji stings and environmental conditions .........................25 3.4.1 Wind conditions ....................................................................................................25 3.4.2 Cairns Beaches ....................................................................................................26 3.4.3 Cairns Islands .......................................................................................................27 3.4.4 Cairns Reefs .........................................................................................................28 3.4.5 Townsville Beaches ..............................................................................................30 3.4.6 Townsville Islands and Reefs ...............................................................................31 3.4.7 Whitsundays Beaches ..........................................................................................32 3.4.8 Whitsundays Islands and Reefs ............................................................................33 i Condie et al. 4.0 Discussion .....................................................................................................................35 5.0 Recommendations and Conclusion ...............................................................................37 References ...........................................................................................................................38 Appendix 1: Public database description ..............................................................................40 ii Early warning systems to minimize the risk of box jellyfish stings by empowering stakeholders LIST OF TABLES Table 1: LMMs results for polyp asexual reproduction throughout the experiment (df = degrees of freedom). .....................................................................................14 Table 2: LMMs results for feeding ability (% brine shrimp consumed). ........................15 Table 3: LMMs with results for mean mobility (mean % pixel change per sample). ......16 Table 4: Summary of results of a linear mixed-models analysis of the number of swimming polyps (n = 48) produced in each day (days 2, 5, 8 and 11) between treatments in the experiment. ........................................................................18 Table 5: Summary of results of a linear mixed-models analysis of the respiration rates of polyps in each day (days 0, 1, 4, 7, 8, 10 and 13) between treatments in the experiment. ....................................................................................................19 Table 6: Summary of results of a linear mixed-models analysis of the mobility of polyps before and after exposure to pH and temperature treatments in the experiment. ......................................................................................................................20 Table 7: Comparison of minimum and maximum temperatures recorded at each site (orange) and the range in which cubozoans (blue) were seen in both Cairns and previous findings of Llewellyn et al (2016). ....................................................24 iii Condie et al. LIST
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