Exploring the life histories of cephalopods using stable isotope analysis of an archival tissue

Abstract

Relatively little is known about the life histories of cephalopods compared to many other groups of major marine predators such as fish, marine mammals, and sea birds. Increased importance of cephalopods to global fisheries in the past forty years and a recognition of the important ecological roles of cephalopods has driven increased research interest into the lives of these enigmatic animals. Still, there is a paucity of information about the life histories of all cephalopods except a few well-studied species.Stable isotope analysis has become a powerful tool to infer nutritional sources and movement patterns in aquatic organisms. The use of this tool can be extended temporally when used in tissues that have no elemental turnover after formation, or archival tissues, which provide a frozen record of stable isotope composition at formation. In this dissertation I explore the utility of using stable isotope analysis of an archival tissue, eye lens, in cephalopods to help provide sorely needed information about the life histories of this ubiquitous class of marine mollusks. Here the use of stable isotope analysis of eye lenses is used to investigate possible natal origins of