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Regional patterns of δ13C and δ15N for European common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) throughout the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

Publication . David Wells, R. J.; Rooker, Jay R.; Addis, Piero; Arrizabalaga, Haritz; Baptista, Miguel; Bearzi, Giovanni; Fraile, Igaratza; Lacoue-Labarthe, Thomas; Meese, Emily N.; Megalofonou, Persefoni; Rosa, Rui; Sobrino, Ignacio; Sykes, Antonio V.; Villanueva, Roger

The European common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis Linnaeus, 1758 is a coastal nektobenthic species ranging from the Shetland Islands through the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Northwest Africa into the Mediterranean Sea [1]. This species constitutes one of the most economically valuable cephalopod resources in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, supporting an important fishery resource [2,3]. Sepia officinalis has a relatively short lifespan of 1–2 years, early sexual maturity and an extended spawning season laying eggs on the seafloor with direct benthic, large hatchlings [4,5]. Given this species geographical distribution combined with limited dispersal, it has been a targeted model species to examine connectivity throughout the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea (hereafter NEAO-MS) [6]. Natural biomarkers such as stable isotopes are commonly used to examine food web structure and ecosystem connectivity in marine environments [7,8]. Stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) are particularly useful tracers due to their natural abundance being influenced by the environment and ease of measurement in body tissues without having to track individuals in a population. δ13C is traditionally used to trace carbon pathways because little fractionation occurs between predator and prey, and different primary producers (energy sources) often have unique δ13C values [9]. δ13C values of consumers are a product of the primary producers’ composition and influenced by the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) pool, as well as local abiotic factors including sea surface temperature, and can differ across ocean basins [10] and region-specific freshwater to marine gradients [9]. δ15N becomes enriched with increasing trophic level and is used to infer trophic position [7], but can also differ at the base of the food web. Depending upon the types of nutrients available to stimulate growth, δ15N values can be used to track energy flow in high-nutrient (nitrate) and low-nutrient (N2 fixation) ecosystems as well as new nitrogen (upwelled nitrate) versus regenerated nitrogen (ammonia, urea). Combining both δ13C and δ15N offers the potential to study the connectivity and population structure of species because longitudinal and latitudinal gradients exist throughout marine ecosystems [11,12], including the NEAO-MS [8,13].

2021-09Journal article

Open access