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Malul D, Berman H, Solodoch A, Tal O, Barak N, Mizrahi G, Berenshtein I, Toledo Y, Lotan T, Sher D, Shavit U, Lehahn Y. Directional swimming patterns in jellyfish aggregations. Curr Biol 2024; 34:4033-4038.e5. [PMID: 39106864 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Revised: 06/30/2024] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 08/09/2024]
Abstract
Having a profound influence on marine and coastal environments worldwide, jellyfish hold significant scientific, economic, and public interest.1,2,3,4,5 The predictability of outbreaks and dispersion of jellyfish is limited by a fundamental gap in our understanding of their movement. Although there is evidence that jellyfish may actively affect their position,6,7,8,9,10 the role of active swimming in controlling jellyfish movement, and the characteristics of jellyfish swimming behavior, are not well understood. Consequently, jellyfish are often regarded as passively drifting or randomly moving organisms, both conceptually2,11 and in process studies.12,13,14 Here we show that the movement of jellyfish is modulated by distinctly directional swimming patterns that are oriented away from the coast and against the direction of surface gravity waves. Taking a Lagrangian viewpoint from drone videos that allows the tracking of multiple adjacent jellyfish, and focusing on the scyphozoan jellyfish Rhopilema nomadica as a model organism, we show that the behavior of individual jellyfish translates into a synchronized directional swimming of the aggregation as a whole. Numerical simulations show that this counter-wave swimming behavior results in biased correlated random-walk movement patterns that reduce the risk of stranding, thus providing jellyfish with an adaptive advantage critical to their survival. Our results emphasize the importance of active swimming in regulating jellyfish movement and open the way for a more accurate representation in model studies, thus improving the predictability of jellyfish outbreaks and their dispersion and contributing to our ability to mitigate their possible impact on coastal infrastructure and populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dror Malul
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, Technion City, Haifa 10587, Israel; Department of Marine Geosciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel; The Inter-university Institute for Marine Sciences, Eilat 8810302, Israel
| | - Hadar Berman
- Department of Marine Geosciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Aviv Solodoch
- Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
| | - Omri Tal
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, Technion City, Haifa 10587, Israel
| | - Noga Barak
- Department of Marine Biology, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Gur Mizrahi
- Department of Marine Geosciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Igal Berenshtein
- Department of Marine Biology, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Yaron Toledo
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Tamar Lotan
- Department of Marine Biology, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Daniel Sher
- Department of Marine Biology, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Uri Shavit
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, Technion City, Haifa 10587, Israel
| | - Yoav Lehahn
- Department of Marine Geosciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
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Diamant R, Alexandri T, Barak N, Lotan T. A remote sensing approach for exploring the dynamics of jellyfish, relative to the water current. Sci Rep 2023; 13:14769. [PMID: 37679453 PMCID: PMC10485037 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41655-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Drifting in large numbers, jellyfish often interfere in the operation of nearshore electrical plants, cause disturbances to marine recreational activity, encroach upon local fish populations, and impact food webs. Understanding the dynamic mechanisms behind jellyfish behavior is of importance in order to create migration models. In this work, we focus on the small-scale dynamics of jellyfish and offer a novel method to accurately track the trajectory of individual jellyfish with respect to the water current. The existing approaches for similar tasks usually involve a surface float tied to the jellyfish for location reference. This operation may induce drag on the jellyfish, thereby affecting its motion. Instead, we propose to attach an acoustic tag to the jellyfish's bell and then track its geographical location using acoustic beacons, which detect the tag's emissions, decode its ID and depth, and calculate the tag's position via time-difference-of-arrival acoustic localization. To observe the jellyfish's motion relative to the water current, we use a submerged floater that is deployed together with the released tagged jellyfish. Being Lagrangian on the horizontal plane while maintaining an on-demand depth, the floater drifts with the water current; thus, its trajectory serves as a reference for the current's velocity field. Using an acoustic modem and a hydrophone mounted to the floater, the operator from the deploying boat remotely changes the depth of the floater on-the-fly, to align it with that of the tagged jellyfish (as reported by the jellyfish's acoustic tag), thereby serving as a reference for the jellyfish's 3D motion with respect to the water current. We performed a proof-of-concept to demonstrate our approach over three jellyfish caught and tagged in Haifa Bay, and three corresponding floaters. The results present different dynamics for the three jellyfish, and show how they can move with, and even against, the water current.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roee Diamant
- Department of Marine Technology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel.
| | - Talmon Alexandri
- Department of Marine Technology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
| | - Noga Barak
- Department of Marine Biology, Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Tamar Lotan
- Department of Marine Biology, Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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Gengel E, Kuplik Z, Angel D, Heifetz E. A physics-based model of swarming jellyfish. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0288378. [PMID: 37428796 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023] Open
Abstract
We propose a model for the structure formation of jellyfish swimming based on active Brownian particles. We address the phenomena of counter-current swimming, avoidance of turbulent flow regions and foraging. We motivate corresponding mechanisms from observations of jellyfish swarming reported in the literature and incorporate them into the generic modelling framework. The model characteristics is tested in three paradigmatic flow environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik Gengel
- Department of Geophysics, Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Zafrir Kuplik
- The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel
| | - Dror Angel
- The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel
| | - Eyal Heifetz
- Department of Geophysics, Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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