Project Leader: Professor Michael Kingsford, James Cook
University
Project 4.8.7 aims to minimise risk to
swimmers through knowledge of the sources of jellyfishes and
changes in their abundance. Although anecdotally there is no
link between abundance of C. barnesi and proximity to
estuaries, this has never been tested critically. The inshore
zone is the area of highest use by the public and forecasting the
risk of envenomation is critical.
The approach taken by this Project involves
sampling near-shore waters near to and away from estuaries in an
area of North Queensland that has high usage by tourists and
locals. The coastal zone between the Daintree River and Mackay has
the highest frequency of envenomation and is the area of
focus. Samples of C. barnesi and C. flecker
will be used for genetics and elemental fingerprints to determine
population structure.
Key objectives of this Project are to:
-
Develop a microsatellite DNA marker library to assess spatial
structure in C. barnesi; and
-
Use elemental chemistry and microsatellites to test for
differences in the population structure of C. barnesi and
C. flecker among locations.
