TY - JOUR
T1 - A review of benthic cnidarians as underappreciated predators in the gelatinous ocean
AU - Morejón-Arrojo, Ramón D.
AU - Lüskow, Florian
AU - Pakhomov, Evgeny A.
AU - Guendulain-García, Sergio D.
AU - Dáttilo, Wesley
AU - Rodríguez-Viera, Leandro
AU - Hoeksema, Bert W.
PY - 2025/4/16
Y1 - 2025/4/16
N2 - Elucidating predatory interactions between benthic cnidarians (represented by scleractinian corals and sea anemones) and gelatinous zooplankton (GZ) is fundamental for understanding energy transfer pathways linking pelagic and benthic marine ecosystems. Based on published predation records, we constructed a bipartite predator-prey network comprising 44 benthic cnidarian species and 21 GZ taxa (cnidarians, ctenophores, thaliaceans). The network exhibited low connectance (7.2%) and a non-nested and modular pattern species interactions. This suggests that more specialised predators tend to interact with specific subsets of gelatinous prey, likely because they reject certain prey items that do not meet their feeding requirements or because they were not available in their environment. Moreover, our findings showed that there are no strong dominant groups of benthic cnidarian species specialising in the consumption of GZ. Benthic cnidarians showed a robustness network value of 0.63, similar to the robustness network value of 0.52 for their GZ prey. It appears that both groups have similar ability to withstand species loss without significantly affecting the overall ecosystem function.Thaliaceans, especially salps and pyrosomes, emerged as key energetic prey, being consumed by 15 cnidarian species, likely due to their relatively high energy content. Interestingly, temperate regions tended to have more documented predation cases compared to the tropics, potentially driven by more opportunistic feeding under seasonally varying, prey-limited, conditions. While current bentho-pelagic coupling via gelatinous predation appears relatively specialised across this bipartite network, anticipated climate impacts disrupting plankton phenology and abundances may substantially modify this behaviour in the future. Quantifying GZ assimilation efficiencies and optimal prey sizes across benthic cnidarian taxa is crucial for fully comprehending the ecosystem implications of such bentho-pelagic couplings amid global change.
AB - Elucidating predatory interactions between benthic cnidarians (represented by scleractinian corals and sea anemones) and gelatinous zooplankton (GZ) is fundamental for understanding energy transfer pathways linking pelagic and benthic marine ecosystems. Based on published predation records, we constructed a bipartite predator-prey network comprising 44 benthic cnidarian species and 21 GZ taxa (cnidarians, ctenophores, thaliaceans). The network exhibited low connectance (7.2%) and a non-nested and modular pattern species interactions. This suggests that more specialised predators tend to interact with specific subsets of gelatinous prey, likely because they reject certain prey items that do not meet their feeding requirements or because they were not available in their environment. Moreover, our findings showed that there are no strong dominant groups of benthic cnidarian species specialising in the consumption of GZ. Benthic cnidarians showed a robustness network value of 0.63, similar to the robustness network value of 0.52 for their GZ prey. It appears that both groups have similar ability to withstand species loss without significantly affecting the overall ecosystem function.Thaliaceans, especially salps and pyrosomes, emerged as key energetic prey, being consumed by 15 cnidarian species, likely due to their relatively high energy content. Interestingly, temperate regions tended to have more documented predation cases compared to the tropics, potentially driven by more opportunistic feeding under seasonally varying, prey-limited, conditions. While current bentho-pelagic coupling via gelatinous predation appears relatively specialised across this bipartite network, anticipated climate impacts disrupting plankton phenology and abundances may substantially modify this behaviour in the future. Quantifying GZ assimilation efficiencies and optimal prey sizes across benthic cnidarian taxa is crucial for fully comprehending the ecosystem implications of such bentho-pelagic couplings amid global change.
U2 - 10.1007/s00227-025-04625-4
DO - 10.1007/s00227-025-04625-4
M3 - Article
SN - 1432-1793
VL - 172
JO - Marine Biology
JF - Marine Biology
M1 - 74
ER -