Jellyfish form spectacular population blooms and there is compelling evidence that jellyfish blooms are becoming more frequent and widespread. Blooms have enormous ecological, economic, and social impacts. For example, they have been implicated in the decline of commercial fisheries, they block the cooling water intakes of coastal industries and ships, and reduce the amenity of coastal waters for tourists. Blooms may be caused by overfishing, climate change, and coastal pollution, which all affect coastal waters around the world.

Jellyfish Blooms: Causes, Consequences and Recent Advances presents reviews and original research articles written by the world's leading experts on jellyfish. Topics covered include the evolution of jellyfish blooms, the impacts of climate change on jellyfish populations, advances in acoustic and molecular methods used to study jellyfish, the role of jellyfish in food webs and nutrient cycles, and the ecology of the benthic stages of the jellyfish life history. This is a valuable resource for students and professional marine biologists, fisheries scientists, oceanographers, and researchers of climate change.

Inhalt
Obituary: Francesc Pagès (19622007).- Obituary: Francesc Pagès (19622007).- Large Scale Approaches.- The growth of jellyfishes.- Extension of methods for jellyfish and ctenophore trophic ecology to large-scale research.- Patterns of jellyfish abundance in the North Atlantic.- Jellyfish in ecosystems, online databases, and ecosystem models.- Quantifying movement of the tropical Australian cubozoan Chironex fleckeri using acoustic telemetry.- Acoustic survey of a jellyfish- dominated ecosystem (Mljet Island, Croatia).- Stock enhancement of the edible jellyfish (Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye) in Liaodong Bay, China: a review.- Trophic Ecology and Nutrient Dynamics.- Stable isotope and fatty acid tracers in energy and nutrient studies of jellyfish: a review.- Influence of jellyfish blooms on carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling and plankton production.- Influence of decomposing jellyfish on the sediment oxygen demand and nutrient dynamics.- Evolution and Molecular Approaches.- A review and synthesis on the systematics and evolution of jellyfish blooms: advantageous aggregations and adaptive assemblages.- A character-based analysis of the evolution of jellyfish blooms: adaptation and exaptation.- A new Taqman© PCR-based method for the detection and identification of scyphozoan jellyfish polyps.- Comparative analysis of nuclear ribosomal DNA from the moon jelly Aurelia sp.1 (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) with characterizations of the 18S, 28S genes, and the intergenic spacer (IGS).- Benthic Stages of the Life History.- The potential importance of podocysts to the formation of scyphozoan blooms: a review.- Effects of temperature and light intensity on asexual reproduction of the scyphozoan, Aurelia aurita (L.) in Taiwan.- Substrate preferences of scyphozoan Aurelialabiata polyps among common dock-building materials.- General Biology and Ecology.- Ontogenetic changes in the ecological function of the association behavior between jack mackerel Trachurus japonicus and jellyfish.- Kinematic properties of the jellyfish Aurelia sp.