Marine Biology Commons^™

Qpcr Detection Of Early Life History Stage Chrysaora Quinquecirrha (Sea Nettles) In Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, John J. Gaynor, Paul A.X. Bologna, Dena J. Restaino, Christie Barry

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The sea nettle Chrysaora quinquecirrha has become abundant in the Barnegat Bay estuary and frequently blooms in warm summer months. Various factors have been attributed to the increasing localized appearance of sea nettles and other jellyfish including eutrophication, overfishing, global warming, construction, and species introduction. Despite its abundance and frequent distribution within estuarine systems, very little work has been done to detect and quantify the early life history stages of this organism. Free-swimming larval stages of C. quinquecirrha can be detected and quantified using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay specific for the C. quinquecirrha 16S ribosomal (r)DNA locus of …