PULMO was implemented in collaboration with several laboratories at the Universities of Salento (Lecce), Bari, Palermo, and the Taranto Institute for Coastal and Marine Enviroment. The research activity was split in workpackages, including a) comprehensive review of available literature on the species R. pulmo and other related taxa; b) sampling over a period of 18 months; c) investigation on different life stages; d) analysis of jellyfish population dynamics, reproductive biology and trophic ecology; e) analysis of diversity, abundance, and metabolic activities of jellyfish-associated microbial communities; e) analysis of biochemical composition and biological activities of jellyfish tissues. The literature review was carried out on near 100 scientific articles.This search allowed setting the available baseline information on species, to identify knowledge gaps preventing predictions on jellyfish demography in the Mediterranean Sea, and to define a comprehensive sampling plan, protocols, and methodologies for PULMO. Sampling was carried out on a single, resident jellyfish population in the Gulf of Taranto, Ionian Sea. Jellyfish specimens at different stage of development were collected in the field across months of the sampling period. All samples were processed in according to the adopted protocols for morphological, biochemical, and microbiological analyses. Each jellyfish sampling was integrated by the collection of chemico-physical environmental data, zooplankton and water samples. A quest for the so far unknown asexual polyp stage was carried out by expert scuba divers over a wide range of available artificial hard substrates occurring in the sampling area. Sand samples were transported to laboratory aquaria in thermostatic room in search of resting stages. Biological and water samples were distributed to different laboratories for analyses of stable isotopic, molecular taxonomy and metabolic profiling of the jellyfish-associated microbiome, and biochemical composition of jellyfish, including heavy metal contents. Morphological and histological analyses on jellyfish samples were carried out by microscopy work. The seasonal changes and the reproductive biology of R. pulmo population were monitored over the year with estimation of Gonad-Somatic and Fecundity Indexes.The seasonal reproductive cycle was followed by standard histological methods on semithin sections of the gonadic tissue. The combination of gut content and nitrogen and carbon stable isotope analyses were paralleled by an inventory of the coastal zooplankton prey community. Jellyfish associated microbial taxa isolated from different body fractions of adult jellyfish were identified by molecular taxonomy (16s rDNA) and metabolic activity screening. The biotechnological/pharmaceutical potential of R. pulmo has been investigated by integrated analysis of the anti-microbial activities of different fractions of jellyfish extracts and by the NMR spectroscopy characterization. The analysis of decay of jellyfish carcasses was not carried out because of the lack of time. Dissemination of results was carried out by participation to national and international conferences and by participation to expert meetings such as the International Jellyfish Bloom Symposium (Barcelona, June 2016,
https://goo.gl/8RS97e) and the European Marine Biology Symposium (Piran, September, 2017 (
https://goo.gl/gj48Cm) or the Unione Zoologica Italiana meeting (Torino, September, 2017) or by seminars to PhD students (Trieste,
https://goo.gl/sMq3Up). PULMO has received attention by the public through high-impact daily news paper such as The New York Times (
https://goo.gl/neBPwM) The Guardian (
https://goo.gl/KL15rg§ù), Repubblica (
https://goo.gl/LhqdNz) and popular science websites (
https://goo.gl/WbvoTU https://goo.gl/LBHKBr
https://goo.gl/WbvoTU).