Is Climate Change Affecting the Lion’s Mane?
The climate crisis has been hitting animals hard around the world, and jellyfish are no exception. However, a 2018 study found that venomous creatures, including jellyfish, are likely to increase due to climate change. Numerous other studies have also pointed to how warmer oceans with lower oxygen content can favor jellyfish more than other marine species.
But Collins warned that blanket statements about jellyfish thriving in changing conditions are difficult to sustain, as there are always exceptions. There are some species of lion’s mane jellyfish, for instance, that are not very well understood at this time and that are distributed in different regions of the world. More research on them and other species is needed to determine just how climate change will affect them.
Nonetheless, all marine species can be expected to be impacted in one way or another as the oceans heat up, acidify, and shift in other ways due to human-induced climate change—and in many places, those shifts are already happening. Some may shift ranges, some may become more abundant than they were, and some are likely to become less so. Changes in one species could have knock-on effects and even destabilize entire ecosystems.
That points to the need for conservation strategies that account for all sorts shifts. (So far, the world has talked a big game but hasn’t done great when it comes to following through.)
