A Dietary Study of Moroteuthis Ingens and Other Southern Ocean Squid Species: Combined Stomach Contents and Fatty Acid Analyses
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A dietary study of Moroteuthis ingens and other Southern Ocean squid species: combined stomach contents and fatty acid analyses by Katrina L. Phillips Bachelor of Science (Biochemistry, Zoology), University of Tasmania Bachelor of Antarctic Studies (Honours), University of Tasmania Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Tasmania (October, 2003) ii "EMBRIAGADO por la evidencia del prodigio, en aquel momenta se olvid6 de la frustraci6n de sus empresas delirantes y del cuerpo de Melquiades abandonado al apetito de los calamares." "INTOXICATED by the evidence of the miracle, he forgot at that moment about the frustration of his delirious undertakings and Melquiades' body, abandoned to the appetite of the squids." Gabriel Garcia Marquez Cien aiios de soledad (One hundred years of solitude) (1967) "No shortage of explanations for life's mysteries. Explanations are two a penny these days. The truth, however, is altogether harder to find." Salman Rushdie The ground beneath her feet (1999) iii This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the Unjversity or any other institution, except by way of background information and which has been duly acknowledged, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Thjs thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Katrina L. Phillips ABSTRACT The squid fauna are a key component of the Southern Ocean ecosystem, although unfortunately little is known of their distribution, biology and ecology. While the biomass of squid in the Southern Ocean must impose a large amount of predatory pressure on lower trophic levels, few dietary data exist for any of the Southern Ocean species. Conventional dietary analyses of squid are fraught with many sources of bias, and therefore this study has employed complementary stomach contents and fatty acid analyses to investigate aspects of the diet of Southern Ocean squid. The diet of the onychoteuthid Moroteuthis ingens was largely comprised of myctophid fish, and the digestive gland of M. ingens was rich in lipid and found to be an ideal source of fatty acid dietary tracers that are unmodified from the diet. Fatty acid dietary tracers were then applied in combination with stomach contents analyses to investigate the temporal, spatial and size related dietary patterns of M. ingens. Using these complementary techniques, the diet of M. ingens was found to vary significantly on an interannual and seasonal basis within the vicinity of Macquarie Island, largely due to fluctuations in the proportions of myctophid fish species in the diet. Moroteuthis ingens also exhibited spatial variations in diet among Macquarie Island, the Falkland Islands, the Chatham Rise and Campbell Plateau (the latter two sites located within New Zealand waters). The diet at the New Zealand sites was characterised by a proportion of temperate myctophid species not identified at other sites, whereas squid collected from the Falkland Islands consumed a much greater proportion of cephalopod prey. Lipid class and fatty acid analyses also indicated that the diet varied considerably between the Chatham Rise and Campbell Plateau, most likely due to the influences of different oceanographic regimes. Stomach contents and fatty acid analyses of squid collected from the Falkland Islands indicated that M. ingens switches from a crustacean- and cephalopod-based diet to a fish- and cephalopod-diet at around 200 mm mantle length. Lipid class and fatty acid analyses of the other Southern Ocean squid indicated that oegopsid species accumulate a large amount of lipid in the digestive gland. This lipid has been determined to be of dietary origin, and will thus provide a rich source of fatty acid dietary tracers applicable to future food-web studies of squid. Further consideration of the mode of lipid and fatty acid storage in the digestive gland will be required before squid fatty acid profiles can be reliably applied to dietary studies of higher trophic predators. iv Table of Contents Declarations and Abstract iii Acknowledgments viii Acronyms and Authorities x Chapter 1. General Introduction 1 1.1 Squid and the Southern Ocean 1 1.2 Squid as predators in the Southern Ocean 3 1.3 Dietary studies of squid 5 1.4 Complementary methods of diet analysis 6 I .4.I Serological and genetic techniques 6 1.4.2 Stable isotopes and fatty acid dietary tracers 7 1.5 The onychoteuthid squid Moroteuthis ingens 10 1.6 Objectives of this study 13 Chapter 2. Materials and methods 14 2.1 Squid collection 14 2.I .I Macquarie Island and Heard Island I4 2.I.2 Great Oyster Bay, Tasmania I4 2.I.3 The Chatham Rise and Campbell Plateau I5 2.I.4 The Falkland Islands I5 2.2 Squid dissections 15 2.3 Stomach contents analyses 17 2.4 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 17 2.5 Software 19 Chapter 3. The digestive gland of Moroteuthis ingens as a source of fatty acid dietary tracers 20 3.1 Abstract 20 3.2 Introduction 21 3.3 Materials and methods 22 3.3.I Squid collection 22 3.3.2 Stomach contents analyses 23 3.3.3 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 23 3 .3 .4 Statistical analyses 23 3.4 Results 25 3.4.I General biology 25 3.4.2 Stomach contents 25 3.4.3 Lipid classes and fatty acids 27 v 3.4.3.1 Mantle tissue 27 3.4.3.2 Digestive gland 29 3.4.3.3 Stomach fluid 32 3.4.4 Comparisons with potential prey 32 3.5 Discussion 33 3.5.1 The diet of Moroteuthis ingens - stomach contents analyses 33 3.5.2 The lipid composition of the digestive gland, stomach and prey items 36 3.5.3 Lipid and fatty acid composition of mantle tissue 38 3.5.4 Future applications offatty acid dietary tracers to studies of squid 39 3.5.5 Implications for squid ecology in the Southern Ocean 40 3.6 Conclusions 41 Chapter4. Temporal variations in the diet of Moroteuthis ingens at Macquarie Island 42 4.1 Abstract 42 4.2 Introduction 43 4.3 Materials and methods 44 4.3.1 Squid collection 44 4.3.2 Stomach contents analyses 46 4.3.3 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 47 4.3.4 Statistical analyses 47 4.4 Results 49 4.4.1 General biology 49 4.4.2 Stomach contents 49 4.4.3 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 58 4.4.4 Interannual and seasonal comparisons of fatty acid profiles 62 4.5 Discussion 65 4.5.1 Interannual and seasonal variations in diet 67 4.5.2 A comparison of methods 70 4.5.3 Prey size of Moroteuthis ingens 71 4.5.4 Mantle fatty acid profiles 72 4.6 Conclusions 72 Chapter 5. Spatial variations in the diet of Moroteuthis ingens at four sites in the Southern Ocean 74 5.1 Abstract 74 5.2 Introduction 75 5.3 Materials and methods 76 5.3.1 Squid collection 76 vi 5.3.2 Stomach contents analyses 78 5.3.3 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 78 5.3.4 Statistical analyses 79 5.4 Results 80 5.4.1 General biology 80 5.4.2 Stomach contents 80 5.4.3 Lipid and fatty acid profiles 88 5.4.3.1 Digestive gland 88 5.4.3.2 Mantle 91 5.4.4 Between-sites comparison offatty acid profiles 91 5.4.4.1 Fatty acid profiles of the digestive gland 91 5.4.4.2 Fatty acid profiles of the mantle 95 5.5 Discussion 95 5.5.1 Stomach contents - spatial variations in diet 96 5.5.2 Lipid andfatty acid data - digestive gland 98 5.5.3 Lipid and fatty acid data - the Campbell Plateau 99 Chapter 6. Size-related dietary changes observed in Moroteuthis ingens at the Falkland Islands 102 6.1 Abstract 102 6.2 Introduction 103 6.3 Materials and methods 104 6.3.1 Sample collection 104 6.3.2 Stomach contents analyses 104 6.3.3 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 106 6.3.4 Statistical analyses 106 6.4 Results 108 6.4.1 Size classes 108 6.4.2 Stomach contents 111 6.4.3 Lipid class and fatty acid data ofMoroteuthis mgens 114 6.4.4 Lipid class and fatty acid profiles ofpotential prey 118 6.4.5 Comparisons with prey 120 6.5 Discussion 124 6.6 Conclusions 128 Chapter 7. Lipid and fatty acid composition of the mantle and digestive gland from four Southern Ocean squid species: implications for food-web studies 129 7.1 Abstract 129 7.2 Introduction 130 7.3 Materials and methods 131 7.3.1 Squid collection 131 7.3.2 Lipid extraction and fatty acid analysis 133 " vii 7.4 Results 134 7.4.1 General biology 134 7.4.2 Total lipid and lipid class data 135 7.4.2.1 Mantle tissue 135 7.4.2.2 Digestive gland 138 7.5 Discussion 141 7.5.1 Lipid composition of the digestive gland 141 7.5.2 Dietary influence on the fatty acid composition of the digestive gland 143 7.5.3 The application of squid fatty acid profiles to dietary studies of higher predators 144 7.6 Conclusions 147 Chapter 8. Summary and recommendations 148 8.1 Dietary composition of Moroteuthis ingens 148 8.2 Stomach contents 149 8.3 Lipid and fatty acid analyses 150 Literature cited 152 Appendix I. Additional biological data for Moroteuthis ingens from various locations in the Southern Ocean xiii Appendix II.