Collaborative Research: Adaptable life history strategy of a migratory large predator in response to El Nino and climate change

该项目将研究Dosidicus gigas（洪堡鱿鱼）对2009-2010年厄尔尼诺事件的反应，该事件伴随着加州湾内瓜伊马斯盆地这种鱿鱼商业渔业的崩溃。这种大鱿鱼是一种主要的捕食者，在加州湾，加州海流和秘鲁海流系统中具有重要的生态和经济意义。2010年初，这些鱿鱼放弃了它们在瓜伊马斯盆地的正常海岸架栖息地，而是在北部的萨尔西普埃德斯盆地被发现，这是一个受厄尔尼诺影响的地区。商业渔业也转移到这一地区，2010-2012年在瓜伊马斯盆地没有发现大型鱿鱼，相反，在异常小的尺寸和年轻的年龄成熟的动物很多。 尽管海洋条件明显恢复正常，但尚未恢复到成熟时的大尺寸状态。2009-2010年的厄尔尼诺现象提供了一个不可预见的机会，揭示了长吻杜父鱼对严重气候异常的适应性的一个重要特征，即成熟时的大小和年龄大幅下降。现在，这些调查人员将有机会记录恢复到正常的大尺寸成熟条件。该项目的具体目标是：1）继续实施已经在加州湾建立的声学调查和鱿鱼直接采样方案，以评估分布、生物量、生活史战略饮食以及与厄尔尼诺前条件相关的迁徙和觅食行为，2）在蒙特雷湾进行类似调查，加州与长期遥控车辆调查鱿鱼丰富。 从这些研究的数据将提供一个恢复在两个不同的鱿鱼种群的比较，并产生有价值的见解什么样的生态影响的一个地区预计将经历一个入侵的小型或大型洪堡鱿鱼。随着长期气候变化的发展，这两种形式的鱿鱼可能会向北扩展到加州海流系统，将为参与的研究生和本科生提供培训，并将继续与墨西哥的一所技术学院建立合作关系，让墨西哥本科生参与当地采样，并针对当地鱿鱼捕捞社区开展公共宣传。鱿鱼丰度（生物量）和觅食（饮食）数据将纳入NOAA为洪堡鱿鱼开发的渔业管理模型。 该项目有关厄尔尼诺、气候变化和鱿鱼渔业的研究结果将被纳入与NOAA（Squids 4Kids）、谷歌科学博览会科学环聊计划和霍普金斯海洋站约翰·斯坦贝克的NEH夏季研究所建立的外展计划。调查人员将继续在蒙特雷湾水族馆和哈特菲尔德海洋科学中心展出正在开发的鱿鱼展品。

This project will examine the response of Dosidicus gigas (Humboldt squid) to an El Niño event in 2009-2010 that was accompanied by a collapse of the commercial fishery for this squid in the Guaymas Basin within the Gulf of California. This large squid is a major predator of great ecological and economic importance in the Gulf of California, the California Current, and Peru Current systems. In early 2010, these squid abandoned their normal coastal-shelf habitats in the Guaymas Basin and instead were found in the Salsipuedes Basin to the north, an area buffered from the effects of El Niño by the upwelling of colder water. The commercial fishery also relocated to this region and large squid were not found in the Guaymas Basin from 2010-2012, instead animals that matured at an unusually small size and young age were abundant. A return to the large size-at-maturity condition has still not occurred, despite the apparent return of normal oceanographic conditions. The El Niño of 2009-2010 presented an unforeseen opportunity to reveal an important feature of adaptability of Dosidicus gigas to an acute climatic anomaly, namely a large decrease in size and age at maturity. Now these investigators will have the opportunity to document recovery to the normal large size-at-maturity condition. The specific aims of this project are: 1) continue a program of acoustic surveys and direct sampling of squid that has already been established in the Gulf of California in order to assess distribution, biomass, life history strategy diet, and migratory and foraging behaviors relative to pre-El Niño conditions and 2) conduct analogous surveys in Monterey Bay, California in conjunction with long-term remote operated vehicle surveys of squid abundance. The data from these studies will provide a comparison of recovery in the two different squid populations and yield valuable insights into what ecological effects an area is expected to experience with an invasion of either small or large Humboldt squid. As long-term climate change progresses, squid of both forms may expand northward into the California Current System.Training will be provided for participating graduate and undergraduate students and an established collaboration will be continued with a technical college in Mexico that involves Mexican undergraduates in local sampling and developing public outreach aimed at the local squid fishing community. Squid abundance (biomass) and foraging (diet) data will be incorporated into NOAA fishery-management models being developed for Humboldt squid. Findings of the project concerning El Niño, climate change, and squid fisheries will be incorporated into an established outreach program with NOAA (Squids4Kids), the Google Science Fair Science Hangouts program, and a NEH Summer Institute on John Steinbeck at Hopkins Marine Station. The investigators will continue to contribute exhibits being developed on squid at both the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Hatfield Marine Science Center.