DE-COMB: DEcay of an invasive Ctenophore blOoms as perturbation to the coastal marine MicroBial community – from molecules to ecosystems – and integrated interdisciplinary approach – DEcay of an invasive Ctenophore blOoms as perturbation to the coastal marine MicroBial community – from molecules to ecosystems – and integrated interdisciplinary approach

Short description

The ultimate objective of our project is to understand the effect of jellyfish blooms, specifically in terms of organic matter (OM) released as jellyfish populations decay, on the natural microbial community and thus, on marine ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycles in the ocean. In particularly, we will focus on the invasive bloom-forming ctenophore as perturbation and the potential new, sporadically available, source of dissolved organic matter (DOM) for the natural bacterial community of the invaded coastal marine ecosystem. We will apply an integrated interdisciplinary approach to tackle this problem – from the molecular to the ecosystem scale.