Tag Archives: CHANGEZ

Manet Team joins the Jellyfish Blooms Symposium in Ireland

Every three to four years, jellyfish researchers from around the world come together for some serious fun: the International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium.

The event is one of a kind and a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet new colleagues, and share the latest discoveries about our favourite marine invertebrates. This year, the 8th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium took place in Cork, Ireland, where the Manet Team from the University Museum of Bergen presented some of our latest findings and exchanged ideas with a fantastic international community of jellyfish researchers.

Over several days of talks, posters and discussions, the symposium covered many aspects of gelatinous zooplankton research; from their fascinating life cycles and biodiversity to their roles in marine ecosystems and responses to our changing oceans. The programme also showcased how new molecular, technological and modelling approaches are changing the way we study these often elusive animals. Most importantly, the meeting provided a unique space to exchange ideas, build new collaborations and discuss where jellyfish research should go next.

About 100 people in a group photo taken in an atrium, and a picture of the conference poster, which has different jellyfish on it
Group picture and poster of the 8th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium. Group picture by Enzo C. Morandini

Aino opened the second day of the conference with a fantastic keynote talk on the limitations of sanger sequencing and available reference databases. Challenges we will be working on during our new Artsdatabanken project CHANGEZ. She also shared the work we’ve done over the last decade and the exciting future endeavors we are embarking on.

Two images of a female professor presenting a talk in the auditorium
Aino during her plenary talk: A decade of reference sequencing jellyfish.

Joan shared his latest findings on a group of substantially understudied hydromedusae and how crucial it is to integrate both life cycle stages if we aim to understand their phylogenetic relationships and distribution.

A man giving a lecture (title on slide: “Connecting life stages: revisiting life cycle, species diversity and phylogenetic position in understudied hydromedusae”. ) and a photo of a branching marine invertebrate growing on a sponge
Joan during his talk “Connecting life stages: revisiting life cycle, species diversity and phylogenetic position in understudied hydromedusae”.

Praveen focused on his results on bipolarity in calycophoran syphonophores, as part of the MSCA H2020 project POLE2POLE, funded by the European Commission.

A man giving a presentation in front of an auditorium, and photo of a siphonophore, a jelly-like animal
Praveen presenting exciting results of his PhD thesis working on bipolarity in Dimophyes arctica.

Erlend explained how to properly identify pelagic hydrozoans affecting aquaculture in NE Atlantic. You can check out our ID guide here: https://zenodo.org/records/17303147 (link)

A small jellyfish with four prominent white spots against a black background, and a man giving a presentation titled “Key identification characters of pelagic hydrozoans affecting aquaculture in the North-Eastern Atlantic."
Erlend during his talk titled “Key identification characters of pelagic hydrozoans affecting aquaculture in the North-Eastern Atlantic.

Luis presented the project JellySafe, funded by FHF – Norwegian Seafood Research Fund, and the extent of the Apolemia uvaria (and other jellyfish) outbreaks for the last two decades.

Two images, first is of what looks like a fluffy white mop, but is in fact a jellyfish - the other is of Lusi presenting his research project.
Luis presenting “Challenges to finfish aquaculture from Apolemia and other hydromedusae and siphonophores in the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean”

Doris shared how little we still know about the true diversity of tubulariid hydroids, despite being widely widespread and negatively impact aquaculture.

Doris during her talk on “Hidden diversity in Tubulariidae Goldfuss, 1818 (Hydrozoa) in the Northeast Atlantic and Arctic waters, and a photo of said Turbulariids, which are small, flower like animals in white and bright orange.
Doris during her talk on “Hidden diversity in Tubulariidae Goldfuss, 1818 (Hydrozoa) in the Northeast Atlantic and Arctic waters.

Besides the scientific programme of the conference, we also joined a Pint of Science outreach event promoted by the symposium’s organizing committee, where Joan gave a talk exploring the curious and often surprising lives of these fascinating animals.

In what os very clearly a bar (lots of beer taps and bar desk), a presentation is being given about jellyfish
Joan presenting a popular talk during Pint of Science: Time travellers of the sea: the hidden lives of jellies.
Irish sights, castles and amazing, green nature
Impressive historical buildings and breathtaking landscapes in beautiful Ireland were another highlight of our trip.

In brief: we had a great, productive and enriching experience presenting our latest findings and hearing very inspiring talks. Plus, we got to explore some of the wonders in and around Cork, with some birding whenever we had the chance. We are very much looking forward to the 9th Jellyfish Blooms Symposium in Sao Paulo 2029!

6 jellyfish researchers posing in front of a rollup with the conference logo
Happy faces in our group picture during the 8th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium. Great job, everyone!

– Manet Team

Exciting news from the Manet Team!

There are periods when you wait quietly for good news to knock. Then there are those rare, wonderful times when great news shows up in twos. We are excited to announce that the Manet Team at the Department of Natural History has been granted not one, but two new projects: CHANGEZ – Challenging taxa of gelatinous zooplankton, and ODIN – Octocoral diversity in Norway.

Figure 1. New projects funded by Artsdatabanken to the Manet Team at the Department of Natural History. Pictures: Erling Svensen and Joan J. Soto-Angel.

The projects are funded by Artsdatabanken, the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre. As you know, Artsdatabanken projects (aka artsprosjekter) aim to improve knowledge of the diversity and distribution of poorly known groups. This is precisely the case for octocorals, as well as many jellyfish and ctenophores in Norwegian waters. Among others, Artsprosjekter aim to produce new DNA barcodes that will allow for an effective species monitoring. 

Octocorals (sea fans, sea pens, and soft corals) are important habitat formers, providing substrate and nursery grounds for many species. They are also important indicators for Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems. Despite their importance, our knowledge of octocoral true diversity and distribution in Norwegian waters remains scarce. Project ODIN (Project leader: Joan J. Soto-Angel) aims to fill this gap in the knowledge by applying a synergetic combination of imaging and sequencing tools.

Figure 2. Newly granted Artsprosjektet ODIN – Octocoral Diversity in Norway. Picture: Erling Svensen

The diversity of certain jellies (such as trachylines, siphonophores, coronates and ctenophores (aka comb jellies) in Norwegian waters remains inadequately explored. These gelatinous animals are key predators and ubiquitous members of zooplankton, particularly in oceanic waters. However, their fragile bodies and peculiar genetic makeup make them challenging to sample, identify, and DNA sequence. CHANGEZ (Project leader: Aino Hosia) will use the power of next generation sequencing techniques to unveil their hidden diversity.

black background photograph of a deep red jellyfish that is both coming into the frame from below and excitig it at top. Text reads "Artsdatabanken awards 3.45 million NOK to study CHANGEZ: Challenging Taxa of Gelatinous Zooplankton"
Figure 3. A new project on jellies for the Museum, this time focusing on the very challenging ones. CHANGEZ: Challenging Taxa of Gelatinous Zooplankton. Picture: Joan J. Soto-Angel

We are very excited about the years to come, the questions we will be able to answer through these projects, and the prospects for continuing our work on such fascinating groups of marine invertebrates.

Joan J. Soto-Angel, Manet Team