The Impact of Environmental Conditions on Cnidarian Venom

Venom research is frequently focused on medicinal relevance, new chemicals, and venom evolution, but venom ecology (the study of the interaction between venom and its environment) has received less attention. Given the expected environmental changes as a result of global warming, it is more important than ever to bring this issue to light. We study the literature to see how environmental parameters including temperature, salinity, ontogeny, geographic location, and food affect cnidarian venoms. We discovered an alarming dearth of study into the effects of environmental and biological elements on venoms, with only a few to no papers accessible per category. Importantly, research suggests that these ecological processes may influence other marine or terrestrial venoms, thus we believe that more research into this topic in cnidarians is necessary.