Mnemiopsis leidyi: Distribution and Effect on the Black Sea Ecosystem During the First Years of Invasion in Comparison with Other Gelatinous Blooms

摘要

We review the possible sources and effects of the outburst of Mnemiopsis in the Black Sea in comparison with other gelatinous blooms in the Black and Baltic Seas, and in comparison with the dramatic increase of jellyfish biomass (Chrysaora melanaster) in a quite different ecosystem, the arctic Bering Sea, starting in the same period (the early 1990s). Similar patterns were obvious in both ecosystems and these could be useful to understand the Mnemiopsis plague in the Black and Caspian Seas.