ACN 067 894848 MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER ISSN 1834-4259 NO. 141 JULY 2011 Cephalopods moving southwards to avoid the heat Gretta Pecl, University of Tasmania Email [email protected] The east coast of Tasmania is a climate change species may indicate the potential impacts of climate „hotspot‟ with recent increases in ocean temperatures change that could be expected on other species of 3.8 times the global average. The underlying ocean cephalopods around the world, and also to generate warming in this area is intensified by the presence of valuable information on the life history and popula- the East Australian Current (EAC), which is extend- tion dynamics of this species to assist sustainable ing further south into Tasmanian waters bringing fisheries managements along its shifting distribution. with it warmer northern sub-tropical waters. This Particularly, the project will focus on the effect of has resulted in several dozen range extensions as temperature variability on age and growth and repro- species shift pole-ward to avoid the warming waters ductive biology, as well as the genetic structure of their usual habitats. However, capturing species throughout the population, in both the historical and range shifts can be difficult due to a scarcity of ma- extending areas. rine monitoring programs and the often short time frames of such studies. In response, Tasmania has launched a website-based project called Redmap (Range Extension Database and Mapping project) that invites the 120,000 recreational fishers in Tas- mania, along with scuba divers, commercial fishers and scientists, to log species that are uncommon, demonstrating, in time, how species distributions may be changing. One of the species being tracked is Octopus tetricus (the gloomy octopus) which is com- mon around mainland Australia and is now being observed in northern Tasmanian waters for the first time. Redmap aims to provide low-cost, long-term and large-scale monitoring to indicate in a cost effec- tive manner where we might need to provide tar- geted research effort. A great example of this is the project that Jorge Ramos, a Mexican marine biologist with a Masters in science on the use, management and conservation of natural resources from CIB- A gloomy octopus snapped by a Tasmanian diver in the south of the NOR, La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico, has recently com- State and reported to Redmap menced at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at UTAS. Under the direction of Drs. Gretta In Tasmania we also have some preliminary Pecl, Natalie Moltschaniwskyj, Jayson Semmens and evidence to suggest potential increases in abundance Jan Strugnell, Jorge is undertaking a PhD to under- in another Tasmanian octopus species, Octopus stand how O. tetricus is responding to anthropogenic maorum, that might be related to warming waters (see climate change. Examination of this range-extending http://www.climatechange.gov.au/publications/ 1 Society information Victorian Branch President: Rachel Przeslawski Secretary Michael Lyons, 19 Banksia Street, Black- Vice President Kirsten Berkendorff burn, VIC 3130. Phone (03) 9894 1526. (Michael Treasurer Don Colgan [email protected]). Meetings at the Melbourne Secretary Carmel McDougall Camera Club, cnr. Dorcas and Farrars Streets, South Journal editor Winston Ponder Melbourne, on the third Monday of each month. No Newsletter editor Des Beechey meeting in January, July or December. Council members Andy Dunstan Queensland Branch Rosemary Golding Meetings are held at 7:30 pm on the last Tuesday of Candace McBride each month except December at the TLC Building, Chris Talbot 20 Peel Street, South Brisbane,. Correspondence: Ma- All enquiries and orders should be sent to Mala- lacological Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch, cological Society of Australasia, c/o Dr. Don Colgan, PO Box 15064, City East, QLD 4002. Phone (07) Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney, NSW 2010. 3224 2923 (W); (07) 3848 9270 (H) or email The Society‟s Newsletter, published quarterly, and the [email protected] journal Molluscan Research, published three times a NSW Branch year, are sent to all members. NSW Branch meetings are held at 2 pm on the fourth Membership fees 2010 Saturday of each month at the Ryde-Eastwood Includes Molluscan Research and MSA Newsletter Leagues Club, 117 Ryedale Rd, West Ryde, Sydney. Ordinary members (Aust., Asia, W.Pacific) $A70 Contact Steve Dean, email [email protected] Ordinary members (Rest of the world) $A100 Newsletter Extra family member $A5 Affiliate organization $A100 Editor: Des Beechey, Malacology Department, Aus- Student member $A45 tralian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney, NSW 2010. Phone (02) 9320 6052, email Membership fees, in Australian dollars, should be [email protected] sent to Malacological Society of Australasia, c/o Dr. Don Colgan, Australian Museum, 6 College St, Syd- This publication is not deemed to be valid for taxo- ney, NSW 2010. nomic purposes (See article 8b in International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 3rd Edition (1985). Web Site www.malsocaus.org Cephalopods moving south (from p. 1) coastline/east-coast-rock-lobster.aspx. An increased these projects please contact Dr Gretta Pecl. prevalence of octopus in rock lobster pots has been If you are interested in finding out what‟s on recorded over the last decade, but this could be re- the move in the fastest warming region in the south- lated to changes in octopus abundance or it could ern hemisphere, sign up for our quarterly newsletter be a function of increased activity as the temperature at www.redmap.org.au. More cephalopods will be increases. It is a trend we are exploring further, as added to the Redmap species list over the next year. the maori octopus is a major predator of Tasmania's second most important fishery species, southern rock lobster. Felipe Briceño, previously of Universi- dad Autónoma de México (Yucatan State), will shortly be commencing a PhD with the CSIRO- UTAS Quantitative Marine Science program at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies to exam- ine predator/prey interactions for octopus and lob- ster, and try and understand how these might alter as the climate changes. For more information on any of EAC predictions under A1F1 assumptions 2 Octopods throw light on changes in the Southern Ocean Jan Strugnell, Latrobe University Email: [email protected] “Octopus? In Antarctica? Really? I never evolutionary „source‟ and an evolutionary „sink‟ for knew there were octopus in Antarctica.” People different octopod clades. often say this when I tell them what I work on, but I am now turning my attention to investigating there ARE octopus in Antarctica - well, in the the population genetics of Southern Ocean octopods Southern Ocean to be more accurate. In fact, there to try and understand finer scale evolutionary proc- are lots of them! esses in single species, and in particular to get a han- There are 13 genera and upwards of 25 species dle on the impacts of oceanic currents and glacial of octopus in Southern Ocean waters. Most are ben- cycles on their evolution. The Census of Antarctic thic (bottom dwellers) but a few species are pelagic Marine Life and the International Polar Year have (free swimmers). At least 5 genera are endemic to Southern Ocean waters. These are Pareledone, Megaleledone, Adelieledone, Praealtus and Bathypurpurata. In conjunction with Louise Allcock (Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute, Galway), I‟ve been using octopods as model taxa to try and understand more about the effects of large scale climatic, tec- tonic and oceanographic changes on evolutionary processes. It was long believed from morphological studies that a number of Southern Ocean taxa (e.g pycnogonids, serolid isopods and octopods) were closely related to those found in the deep sea, but whether these species had their evolutionary origins in the Southern Ocean and subsequently moved into the deep sea or, conversely, had their origins in the deep sea and subsequently moved into the Southern Ocean was not known. I investigated this question using a clade of oc- topods with a single row of suckers on their arms with representatives in the Southern ocean (i.e. Ade- lieldone, Pareledone, Megaleldone) and also in the deep sea (i.e. Thaumeledone, Graneledone and Veldona). Through sequencing a number of genes from repre- sentatives across this clade I found that these octo- pods had their evolutionary origins in the Southern Ocean. The initiation of the world‟s thermohaline circulation (a global oceanic conveyor belt) allowed Jan Strugnell with a specimen of Megaleledone setebos these octopods to colonise the deep sea, where they octopus lost their ink sacs and adapted to life there (Strugnell et al. 2008). facilitated the capture of large number of Southern On finding that the Southern Ocean was an Ocean octopods (necessary for population genetics evolutionary „source‟ for these deep sea octopods I studies) from regions right around Antarctica. The turned my attention to a different clade of octopods, Australia and Pacific Science Foundation (APSF) (the genus Benthoctopus), which have a double row of have provided funding to enable me to use microsa- suckers on their arms. The genus Benthoctopus also tellite loci and mitochondrial genes to investigate contains deep sea and Southern Ocean representa- these evolutionary processes. tives and so I was interested in determining whether If these projects interest you, please get in the Southern Ocean was also an evolutionary source touch as I‟m looking for honours and PhD students for these taxa. I was fascinated to find that in con- on these and other molluscan genetic projects! trast to the clade with a single row of suckers, this clade which possess a double row of suckers had Strugnell, J., Rogers, A.D., Prodöhl, P.A., Collins, their evolutionary origins in the deep sea, likely high M.A.