Respiratory response to temperature of three populations of Aurelia aurita polyps in northern Europe

The benthic life stage (polyp or scyphistoma) of the bloom-forming jellyfish, Aurelia aurita (Linnaeus, 1759), also known as the moon jellyfish, contributes to the seasonal occurrence and abundance of medusa blooms via asexual reproduction. A. aurita is widely distributed in coastal areas in northern Europe, and one of the most studied jellyfish species. While the physiology of the visible medusa is largely understood, understanding of the physiology of the perennial benthic life-stage is scarce. To measure the physiological tolerance of A. aurita, the scyphistoma’s temperature sensitivity across its distributional range was investigated. Respiration rates of polyps from three northern European locations exposed to 11 temperatures between 2 and 22°C were measured. There was a significant difference in respiration rate among the three polyp populations, which may reflect on differences in their thermal tolerance window. A critical temperature was reached at 14°C with the metabolic rate decreasing below and above that temperature. This pattern was less pronounced in the Norwegian population but polyps were able to survive, at least temporarily, those temperatures exceeding their natural range. While polyps collected from northern Norway, with a narrow environmental thermal window, displayed a low baseline metabolism with a Q(10) value of 1.2, polyps from southern England and Scotland had Q(10) values of 1.6 and 2.5, respectively. Differences in polyps’ respiration rates across their distributional range suggest that populations have evolved adaptations to local environmental thermal conditions.