June 18, 2025 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm CDT
Many people have recently noticed small jellyfish floating around in summer in lakes. These are mostly a single invasive species known officially as Craspedacusta sowerbii or sometimes as the Peach-blossom jellyfish. If you have noticed them, you may think you are seeing things, but they are probably real. I will discuss what we know about this invasive species in North American lakes and why they are being noticed more and more often. While scientists still have a lot to learn about these organisms, I will discuss in this webinar the knowledge we currently have, providing some insight into their life histories and ecology, as well as how they might be affecting food webs in our lakes.
Dr. Beatrix Beisner is Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Québec at Montréal (UQAM). Completing her PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2000, she has over 30 years of experience in limnology. Her research interests are focused on lake ecology, plankton community dynamics, spatial ecology, functional traits and biodiversity. She works with both phytoplankton and zooplankton communities in freshwater habitats using empirical, experimental, and modelling approaches. Dr. Beisner is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Plankton Research (Oxford University Press) and she was Director/Co-Director of the Interuniversity Research Group in Limnology in Québec (GRIL) from 2015 to March 2025. She has co-edited 3 books and has published over 130 journal articles. In 2023 she was the recipient of the Frank Rigler Award, the highest honour in her field from the Society for Canadian Aquatic Sciences.
