On the seafloor, the Davidson Seamount is a hidden world. It lies off the coasts of California.
Then, there is the Shining warmthThe ‘pearl octopuses’ (Muusoctopus robustus( ) come together to mate, nest and nurture their eggs until they hatch.
Discovered in 2018The nursery is one of the most impressive octopus nesting sites ever discovered.
After multiple dives, led by James Barry, a marine scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the team has discovered the secret to this unique place: the warmth of the volcano speeds up the development of the eggs, increasing their chances of survival.
The Octopus Garden was observed in detail by MBARI and other local researchers. This allowed us to understand why so many deep-sea Octopus gather there. Barry says.
These findings will help us protect and understand other deep-sea habitats against climate change and other threats.
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Octopus Garden as it is now known seems to have a rather peculiar location for octopus physiology.
The permanent darkness of the ocean is 3,200 meters (10 500 feet) deep. bathypelagic. The researchers estimated as many octopuses as possible, both male and female.
Octopuses are cold-blooded, as many other sea creatures. The average temperature of the Davidson Seamount abyss is around 1.6 degrees Celsius.
At that temperature, the eggs of the cephalopods – referred to as ‘pearl octopuses’ by the researchers thanks to their opalescent sheen – are expected to take five to eight years to hatch.
The researchers studied and documented the octopuses in depth over a period of three years using a remotely operated vehicle. Researchers carefully studied distinguishing features such as scars as well as where the mother octopuses huddled over their eggs.
The seamount’s faint shimmering water was a clue as to why it was selected. This occurs when Warm waterIt mixes with water that is much colder. This revealed a previously unknown Hydrothermal system.
They found that the octopus nests tend to be clustered in crevices – and those crevices are places where warmth seeps from below the seafloor, heating the water to a relatively balmy 11 degrees Celsius (51 Fahrenheit) or so.
The team discovered that this temperature is much more conducive to the metabolism of octopuses and egg incubation. They found that by tracking the individual octopuses they had reduced the incubation time for pearl octopuses to about 21 months. The heat had increased the growth rate of the embryos and metabolism of the mothers.
It is unclear whether warmth is required for the octopuses nesting, but it is clear that this is beneficial. Researchers say that the shorter incubation time reduces the risk of being eaten while the octopuses incubating are still vulnerable, unable to defend themselves or flee. This increases their long-term survival chances.
The deep sea is one the harshest environments on Earth. Yet, animals have developed clever adaptations to deal with its extreme temperatures, constant darkness, and pressure. “Long brooding times increase the chances that the mother’s eggs will not survive.” Barry says.
By nesting near hydrothermal springs octopus mothers give their offspring an advantage.
The research has appeared in Science Advances.
