Interannual variability of body size and beak morphology of the squid Ommastrephes bartramii in the North Pacific Ocean in the context of climate change

Abstract

Oceanic squids are typical species that sensitive to the environment change. Previous studies on oceanic squids mainly focus on its annually fluctuated abundance under the background of climate change. The changes of individual morphological sizes, including body and beak, have been observed in recent years. In this study, Ommastrephes bartramii, an important cephalopod species in North Pacific Ocean, has been selected to analyze the annual morphological changes of body and beak under different scales of climate events. Geometric morphometrics was used to analyze the shape variations of both upper beak and lower beak. The possible phenotypic plasticity of body and beak was also discussed in different aspects. Body size showed different variations among different climatic years. The size at the maturity stage in 2015 (El Niño year) was much smaller than that in other years for both sexes. The centroid size representing the beak size showed the significant difference between two types of Pacific Decadal Oscillation phases. The shapes of upper and lower beaks showed significant differences between small-scale climatic patterns in which El Niño or La Niña event occurred, displaying different growth patterns.

Ontogenetic growth responses to the environmental changes of the swordtip squid (Uroteuthis edulis) spring stock in the East China Sea

“…U. edulis is widely distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and its life history traits are different in various regions (Fang, Jin, et al, 2021; Li, Yu, et al, 2021; Natsukari et al, 1988). The maximum age of squid caught in the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea is 360 and 200 days, which is different from the results in this study (270 days) (Figure 4) (Fang, Han, et al, 2021; Natsukari et al, 1988). The Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea show significant differences in the areas with different latitudes, and the spatial changes in their marine environments (from cold environment to warm environment) may have affected the life cycle (Pecl & Jackson, 2008; Wang et al, 2013; Yamaguchi et al, 2020).…”

“…In the spring stock (Figure 8 U. edulis is widely distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and its life history traits are different in various regions (Fang, Jin, et al, 2021;Li, Yu, et al, 2021;Natsukari et al, 1988). The maximum age of squid caught in the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea is 360 and 200 days, which is different from the results in this study (270 days) (Figure 4) (Fang, Han, et al, 2021;Natsukari et al, 1988).…”

“…The samples hatched in the same month were classified into the same month group, and the hatching month with the highest frequency was selected as the peak hatching month. A single sample Kolmogorov-Smirnoff analysis was performed to test the normality of data on statolith daily increment width (Fang, Han, et al, 2021). If the data were in a normal distribution, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to analyze the differences in the composition of statolith daily increment width among different sampling years (Dan et al, 2022).…”

The significance of cephalopod beaks as a research tool: An update

“…Cephalopod beaks can also provide considerable information on a wide range of physiological, biological and ecological traits, including cephalopod availability, consumption of cephalopods, migrations, competition between cephalopod predators, levels of cephalopod scavenging by predators, distribution, age, growth, cohorts, life-events, stress, thermal changes, reproduction, feeding ecology, behavior, spawning areas, post-spawning mortality and sexual dimorphism [e.g., see review in Xavier et al (2016) and Arkhipkin et al (2018); Table 1]. More recently, new emergent techniques for work on beaks (e.g., stable isotope and trace elements analyses, geometric morphometrics and microstructure analysis) have provided further information on habitat and trophic position, composition, contamination, response of cephalopods to climate variability at individual and/or population levels, embryonic morphogenesis, paralarval ontogeny, ecology and age estimation (Cherel and Hobson, 2005;Perales-Raya et al, 2014b;Xavier et al, 2016;Perales-Raya et al, 2018;Queirós et al, 2018;Golikov et al, 2019a;Golikov et al, 2019b;Northern et al, 2019;Abreu et al, 2020;Queirós et al, 2020a;Armelloni et al, 2020;Queirós et al, 2020b;Franco-Santos and Vidal, 2020;Golikov et al, 2020;Perales-Raya et al, 2020;Fang et al, 2021b;Lishchenko and Jones, 2021). Consequently, the importance of cephalopod beaks in ecological studies continues to attract attention and recognition, with various workshops being organised (Clarke, 1986;Xavier et al, 2007a;Jackson et al, 2007;Xavier et al, 2015).…”

Geometric morphometrics casts light on phylogenetic relevance of cephalopod beak morphological

“…At present, the application of geometric morphometric approaches in the study of cephalopod beak shape is still in the preliminary stage. In previous studies on beak shape, 10 or 20 landmarks and semilandmarks were used (Clarke, 1962; Fang et al, 2018, 2021). Compared with previous studies (Clarke, 1962; Fang et al, 2018, 2021; Neige & Dommergues, 2002; Pacheco‐Ovando et al, 2021), this study included more cephalopod species and realized a higher rate of accurate classification at the family and species levels (Tables 3, 4).…”