Monday, April 20, 2015

Vampire Squid Reproductive Strategy Suggests Longer Life

Researchers have found evidence that vampire squid may reproduce quite differently than all other squid species by pacing their reproductive live throughout adulthood, according to findings published in the most recent journal of Current Biology.

Among soft-bodied cephalopods (such as octopi, cuttlefish, and other squid species), vampire squid live life at a slower pace. At ocean depths ranging from 1,600 to 9,800 feet, they don't swim so much as float, and they get by with little oxygen while consuming a low-calorie diet of zooplankton and detritus.  Now, researchers have discovered that vampire squid differ from all other living coleoid cephalopods in their reproductive strategy as well.

The recent findings suggest that, while other squid reproduce all at once late in their lives, vampire squid appear to alternate between reproductive and resting phases. It's a pattern of multiple spawning more common among fish.

Their slow mode of life seems insufficient to support one big reproductive event, unlike other coleoid cephalopods," says Henk-Jan Hoving, who is working for the Cluster of Excellence "Future Ocean" at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany. "Perhaps it is therefore that vampire squid return to a gonadal resting phase after spawning, and presumably start accumulating energy for a new reproductive cycle."

Hoving and his colleagues were led to the discovery quite by accident as they were going through vampire squid collections dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. The researched noticed that many of the females had spawned but had no ripe or developing eggs and were in a reproductive resting phase.


The findings also suggest that vampire squid live longer than shallow-water squid species typically do. "We know very little about deep-sea organisms and their life-cycle patterns, in particular in the water column of the deep sea," Hoving says. "The patterns we know from coastal and shallow-water organisms may not apply to deep-sea species. We need to enhance our knowledge of deep-sea pelagic organisms and the system they are part [of], since the pelagic deep sea is the largest living space on the planet. A better understanding of this unique marine ecosystem will eventually allow for better development of management and conservation strategies."