University Calendar
Modeling global relationships between climate and jellyfish blooms
About Dr. Natasha Henschke
Dr. Natasha Henschke is a Senior Nereus Fellow and postdoctoral research associate in the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton University. Dr. Henschke’s research has focused on how gelatinous zooplankton communities respond to changing oceanographic conditions. In her current work at Nereus she aims to examine the distribution and abundance of future gelatinous zooplankton populations under different climate and fishing scenarios
About the Seminar
To gain an understanding of how gelatinous zooplankton populations will respond to anthropogenic changes, we first need to understand the factors that influence the distribution and abundance of current and historical populations. Hence, we have developed a population model for the ubiquitous jellyfish Aurelia spp. that incorporates both benthic and pelagic life history stages. This model tracks cohorts of both life stages with temperature and/or consumption driven relationships for growth, reproduction and mortality. This talk will summarize regional and global findings of this model, and explore how medusa populations will respond to future climate change projections.