In situ observations of Stygiomedusa gigantea

Dhugal Lindsay1, Anton Van de Putte2, William Graham3, Bruno Danis4, Davy Fiankan5, Mark Benfield6

1 Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, ; 2 Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility (ANTABIF), ; 3 Dauphin Island Sea Lab, ; 4 Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; Departement Educatie en Natuur; Afdeling Zoetwaterbiologie, ; 5 Vrije Universiteit Brussel, ; 6 Louisiana State University; Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, 

Corresponding author(s): Dhugal Lindsay (dhugal@jamstec.go.jp), Anton Van de Putte (antonarctica@gmail.com)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parenthesis), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in paranthesis), and doi of the data paper.

Abstract

This dataset was provided by Dhugal Lindsay (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)). The data is extracted from a paper by Mark C. Benfield (Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University) and William M. Graham (Dauphin Island Sea Lab and University of South Alabama).
Four individuals of the large scyphozoan jellyfish Stygiomedusa gigantea were observed in the northern Gulf of Mexico over 2005 – 2009 by industrial remotely operated vehicles as part of the SERPENT Project. One of these observations included the symbiotic Bythitid fish Thalassobathia pelagica. Prior to these observations, neither S. gigantea nor T. pelagica had been observed in, or collected from the Gulf of Mexico. In order to summarize the available information on S. gigantea, we located 110 observations obtained over 110 years (1899 – 2009) representing 118 individual specimens of this species from around the world. The resulting dataset confirms that this species is cosmopolitan occurring with records from all Oceans except the Arctic. While the depth range of the four Gulf of Mexico specimens was bathypelagic, there appears to be a pattern of S. gigantea occurring in mesopelagic and epipelagic depth zones at high latitudes, particularly in the Southern Ocean and mesopelagic and bathypelagic depths at mid- and low-latitudes. This pattern may be related to the meridional vertical distribution of temperature or perhaps avoidance of light levels that could degrade porphyrin pigments. There was no evidence that this species migrates vertically. Two of the individuals in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be actively clinging to subsea structures and we speculate that this is a consequence of its normal mode of feeding which may entail using its large oral lobes to hold on to, and trap prey.

Keywords: Abundance, Behaviour, Distribution, Remotely operated vehicles

Data published through GBIF: http://192.168.0.54:8080/ipt-2.0.3/resource.do?r=stygiomedusa_gigantea_in_situ

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:135220
Taxonomic ranks
Class: Scyphozoa [Jellyfish]

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: PS, Southern Ocean
Coordinates: 90°0'0''S and 90°0'0''N Latitude; 180°0'0''W and 180°0'0''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: January 1, 1899

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive In situ observations of Stygiomedusa gigantea
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://192.168.0.54:8080/ipt-2.0.3/archive.do?r=stygiomedusa_gigantea_in_situ
Publication date of data: 2013-08-07
Language: English
Licenses of use: Unrestricted

External datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Online dataset
Distribution: http://www.iobis.org/mapper/?dataset=1620

Dataset description
Object name: Metadata
Distribution: http://www.vliz.be/imis/imis.php?module=dataset&dasid=2336

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2013-08-07
Hierarchy level: Dataset