Fuentes Veronica

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Fuentes
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Veronica
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  • Preprint
    Environmental drivers of salp Thalia democratica population dynamics from in situ observations
    ( 2016-12) Pascual, Maria ; Neubert, Michael G. ; Acuña, José Luis ; Solow, Andrew R. ; Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos ; Salvador, Joaquín ; Olariaga, Alejandro ; Fuentes, Veronica
    Thalia democratica blooms are a recurrent phenomenon in many coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea and have significant ecological effects. To better understand the environmental drivers of salp blooms, we conducted 8 surveys to sample T. democratica in contrasting seasonal, temperature and chlorophyll conditions. In each survey, short-term variations in the abundances of different salp stages were assessed by sampling the same population at 30 min intervals. Using these data, we estimated the parameters in a set of stage-classified matrix population models representing different assumptions about the influence of temperature and chlorophyll on each stage. In the model that best explains our observations, only females are affected by changes in water temperature. Whether this is a direct influence of temperature or an indirect effect reflecting low food availability, female reproduction cessation seems to slow population growth under unfavourable conditions. When conditions become favourable again, females liberate the embryo and change sex to male, allowing for mating under extremely low salp densities and triggering the bloom. In contrast to previous findings, our results suggest that females, rather than oozooids, are responsible for the sustainability of salp populations during latency periods.
  • Article
    Is global ocean sprawl a cause of jellyfish blooms?
    (Ecological Society of America, 2012-09-07) Duarte, Carlos M. ; Pitt, Kylie A. ; Lucas, Cathy H. ; Purcell, Jennifer E. ; Uye, Shin-Ichi ; Robinson, Kelly L. ; Brotz, Lucas ; Decker, Mary Beth ; Sutherland, Kelly R. ; Malej, Alenka ; Madin, Laurence P. ; Mianzan, Hermes ; Gili, Josep-Maria ; Fuentes, Veronica ; Atienza, Dacha ; Pages, Francesc ; Breitburg, Denise L. ; Malek, Jennafer ; Graham, William M. ; Condon, Robert H.
    Jellyfish (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa) blooms appear to be increasing in both intensity and frequency in many coastal areas worldwide, due to multiple hypothesized anthropogenic stressors. Here, we propose that the proliferation of artificial structures – associated with (1) the exponential growth in shipping, aquaculture, and other coastal industries, and (2) coastal protection (collectively, “ocean sprawl”) – provides habitat for jellyfish polyps and may be an important driver of the global increase in jellyfish blooms. However, the habitat of the benthic polyps that commonly result in coastal jellyfish blooms has remained elusive, limiting our understanding of the drivers of these blooms. Support for the hypothesized role of ocean sprawl in promoting jellyfish blooms is provided by observations and experimental evidence demonstrating that jellyfish larvae settle in large numbers on artificial structures in coastal waters and develop into dense concentrations of jellyfish-producing polyps.