Gelcich Stefan

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Gelcich
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Stefan
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  • Article
    Questioning the rise of gelatinous zooplankton in the world's oceans
    (American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2012-02) Condon, Robert H. ; Graham, William M. ; Duarte, Carlos M. ; Pitt, Kylie A. ; Lucas, Cathy H. ; Haddock, Steven H. D. ; Sutherland, Kelly R. ; Robinson, Kelly L. ; Dawson, Michael N. ; Decker, Mary Beth ; Mills, Claudia E. ; Purcell, Jennifer E. ; Malej, Alenka ; Mianzan, Hermes ; Uye, Shin-Ichi ; Gelcich, Stefan ; Madin, Laurence P.
    During the past several decades, high numbers of gelatinous Zooplankton species have been reported in many estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Coupled with media-driven public perception, a paradigm has evolved in which the global ocean ecosystems are thought to he heading toward being dominated by “nuisance” jellyfish. We question this current paradigm by presenting a broad overview of gelatinous Zooplankton in a historical context to develop the hypothesis that population changes reflect the human-mediated alteration of global ocean ecosystems. To this end, we synthesize information related to the evolutionary context of contemporary gelatinous Zooplankton blooms, the human frame of reference for changes in gelatinous Zooplankton populations, and whether sufficient data are available to have established the paradigm. We conclude that the current paradigm in which it is believed that there has been a global increase in gelatinous Zooplankton is unsubstantiated, and we develop a strategy for addressing the critical questions about long-term, human-related changes in the sea as they relate to gelatinous Zooplankton blooms.
  • Article
    Linking human well-being and jellyfish : ecosystem services, impacts, and societal responses
    (Ecological Society of America, 2014-11) Graham, William M. ; Gelcich, Stefan ; Robinson, Kelly L. ; Duarte, Carlos M. ; Brotz, Lucas ; Purcell, Jennifer E. ; Madin, Laurence P. ; Mianzan, Hermes ; Sutherland, Kelly R. ; Uye, Shin-Ichi ; Pitt, Kylie A. ; Lucas, Cathy H. ; Bogeberg, Molly ; Brodeur, Richard D. ; Condon, Robert H.
    Jellyfish are usually perceived as harmful to humans and are seen as “pests”. This negative perception has hindered knowledge regarding their value in terms of ecosystem services. As humans increasingly modify and interact with coastal ecosystems, it is important to evaluate the benefits and costs of jellyfish, given that jellyfish bloom size, frequency, duration, and extent are apparently increasing in some regions of the world. Here we explore those benefits and costs as categorized by regulating, supporting, cultural, and provisioning ecosystem services. A geographical perspective of human vulnerability to jellyfish over four categories of human well-being (health care, food, energy, and freshwater production) is also discussed in the context of thresholds and trade-offs to enable social adaptation. Whereas beneficial services provided by jellyfish likely scale linearly with biomass (perhaps peaking at a saturation point), non-linear thresholds exist for negative impacts to ecosystem services. We suggest that costly adaptive strategies will outpace the beneficial services if jellyfish populations continue to increase in the future.