Temporal variation in growth rates and reproductive parameters in the small near-shore tropical squid Loliolus noctiluca; is cooler better?

Abstract

Seasonal growth rates and size-and age-at-maturity were analysed for the small nearshore tropical loliginid squid Loliolus noctiluca off North Queensland, Australia, over a period of 2 yr. Age of individuals was determined using daily statolith increments. The life cycle of L. noctiluca off North Queensland was just over 4 mo. Analysis of growth found that growth was non-asymptotic, and the form of the curve; exponential, linear or log-linear, depended on sex and season that individuals were caught. Winter-caught individuals were the fastest growing and achieved the largest size compared with summer or autumn-caught individuals. Furthermore, females grew faster than males during the winter. The patterns of growth of L. noctiluca were compared between tropical North Queensland and temperate New South Wales. The temperate individuals lived longer and had slower growth rates. There was also a marked seasonal influence on the onset of sexual maturity among the North Queensland population, with the fastest growing winter-caught individuals maturing later than the autumn or summer individuals. L. noctiluca has a large latitudinal range from New Guinea to Tasmania, this study, and published work, suggests a trend towards increased lifespan and decreased growth rate with increasing latitude. KEY WORDS: Statoliths · Age · Growth rates · Squid · ReproductionResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

Variation in age, growth and maturity in the Australian arrow squid Nototodarus gouldi over time and space-what is the pattern?

“…Interestingly, in between these 2 sample sites, off Townsville, north Queensland, Jackson & Moltschaniwskyj (2002) found that this mid-population alternated between these 2 growth patterns depending on season, with winter-hatched squid displaying the 'cool' growth strategy and summer-hatched squid displaying the 'hot' strategy. Similar differences have also been found between tropical and temperate female populations of the loliginid Loliolus noctiluca in Eastern Australia (Jackson & Moltschaniwskyj 2001). Similarly, populations of Loligo pealeii off northeastern North America show geographic differences in body size with cooler northern waters having larger individuals than warmer southern waters, at least during some seasonal periods (Hatfield & Cadrin 2002).…”

“…Pecl (2001) found that individuals of the large Australian loliginid squid Sepioteuthis australis were smaller and younger from the low latitude site of Newcastle, New South Wales, compared to the higher latitude site of Tasmania. Over even greater distances, Jackson & Moltschaniwskyj (2001) found individuals of the warm water population of the loliginid S. lessoniana in tropical Thailand waters to be considerably smaller and younger than those of the sub-tropical population in south Queensland, Australia. These 2 growth strategies were referred to as 'hot' and 'cool' strategies.…”

“…There is now a substantial body of work that has demonstrated the marked influence of temperature or season on size, growth rates and life spans of both loliginid (Jackson et al 1997, Hatfield 2000, Hatfield et al 2001, Jackson & Moltschaniwskyj 2001, Macy & Brodziak 2001) and ommastrephid (Dawe & Beck 1997, Arkhipkin et al 2000, Arguelles et al 2001 squids. Oceanographic conditions can also be an important influence on the successful growth, abundance and survival of squid (Waluda et al 2001, Agnew et al 2002, Garrison et al 2002, Kang et al 2002.…”

Population biology of the ghost shrimps, Trypaea australiensis and Biffarius arenosus (Decapoda: Thalassinidea), in Western Port, Victoria

“…Latitudinal or site differences in sizes of individuals of the same species have been found for a number of different organisms throughout Australia. For example the carapace width of western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus) females that carry two broods of embryos, has been found to decline progressively with decreasing latitudes (de Lestang and Melville-Smith, 2006), the size of individuals and growth rate of near-shore tropical squids Loliolus noctiluca was found to decrease from northern Queensland to southern New South Wales (Jackson and Moltschaniwskyj, 2001) and the mangroves Avicenna marina, are found to be up to 15 metres taller in northern areas of Australia than in Western Port, Victoria (Edgar, 2001). Reasons for the differences in sizes of individuals between latitudes include increases in growth rate due to warmer temperatures (Lonsdale and Levinton, 1985), latitudinal changes in food availability (Dumbald et al, 1996) and limiting environmental properties such as temperature or salinity (Hanekom and Erasmus, 1988).…”

The use of Depletion Methods to assess Mediterranean cephalopod stocks under the current EU Data Collection Framework

“…Substantial changes in biological parameters in cephalopods are well-documented and reflected at different time scales encompass- (λ) and final population (all in numbers) of cuttlefish from Mallorca using different error models (LOG: log-transformed; GAM: gamma; LSQ: least square). http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 12/05/2018 11:28:52 | ing years (Pecl et al, 2004;Smith et al, 2005), seasons (Jackson et al, 1997;Pecl, 2001;Jackson & Moltschaniwskyj, 2001), weeks (Jackson & Pecl, 2003) and even days (Moltschaniwskyj et al, 2002). All these studies indicate that biological parameters of cephalopods should be estimated at shorter time scales during the actual assessment period, invalidating the triennial sampling scheduled by the DCF, which is clearly not adapted to short-living species like cephalopods.…”