Scyphozoa in the Bornholm Basin (central Baltic Sea)–The role of advection

Abstract

The usual absence of ephyrae and late appearance of medusae of the Scyphozoa Aurelia aurita and Cyanea capillata in the Bornholm Basin (BB; central Baltic Sea) indicate that these species are not strobilating in the region and their presence depends on advection. To study their potential origin we compared drift from historically known strobilation areas derived from a circulation model with spatial distributions observed during 19 cruises in the BB during 2002 and 2003. The model results are in good accordance with the field observations. According to the model results inter-annual differences in the timing of first appearance and life stage at appearance of A. aurita were clearly related to differences in the hydrodynamic regime during the investigation periods. During the stagnation regime in 2002 young medusae occurred first in June in the BB. In contrast, in 2003 fast transport due to several inflow events advected ephyrae released between January and March in the western Baltic already in April to the BB. Although the Gullmar Fjord (western Sweden) is the nearest known strobilation area for C. capillata, the model did not support advection from there in numbers explaining the occurrence of this species in the BB in 2002 and 2003. If the model works adequately in this regions we have to assume that the Gullmar Fjord is not a main source region of C. capillata in the BB, but other strobilation areas in the Kattegat or the North Sea appear more important. Our results imply that advection and inflow events are critical for the occurrence and distribution of early stages of jellyfish in the central Baltic Sea. They demonstrate the potential of circulation models as tools to study the effect of long-range transport on the spatial composition of these organisms.