Abstract
Cephalopods are well known for their cognitive capabilities and unique behavioural repertoires. Yet, certain life strategies and behaviours are still not fully understood. For instance, coastal octopuses have been documented (mainly through citizen science and TV documentaries) to occasionally leave the water and crawl in intertidal areas. Yet, there is a complete lack of knowledge on this behaviour's physiological and biochemical basis. Within this context, this study aimed to investigate, for the first time, physiological (routine and maximum metabolic rates and aerobic scope) and biochemical (i.e., antioxidant enzymes activities, heat shock protein and ubiquitin levels, DNA damage, lipid peroxidation) responses of the common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, to emersion. The octopuses’ physiological performance was determined by measuring metabolic rates in different emersion treatments and biochemical markers. The size-adjusted maximum metabolic rates (MMRadj) of octopuses exposed to 2:30 min of air exposure followed by re-immersion did not differ significantly from the MMRadj of the chased individuals (control group). Yet, most biochemical markers revealed no significant differences among the different emersion treatments. Our findings showed that O. vulgaris could tolerate exposure to short-term emersion periods due to an efficient antioxidant machinery and cellular repair mechanisms. Alongside, we argue that the use of atmospheric air through the mucus-covered gills and/or cutaneous respiration may also help octopus withstand emersion and crawling on land.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the input of Frank Melzner from GEOMAR-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. This work benefitted from his expertise and helpful suggestions.
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The authors acknowledge funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) under the strategic project UIDB/04292/2020 granted to MARE, project LA/P/0069/2020 granted to the Associate Laboratory ARNET, project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences—UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy—i4HBm, and scientific employment stimulus programs, namely DL57/2016/CP1479/CT0023 to TRAQ6 and 2021.01030.CEECIND to JRP.
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RR conceptualized the study; JLR, VML conducted the fishermen survey; JLR, VML, JRP, MS and TR conducted the experimental work; JLR, MRP performed and MD supervised the enzymatic assays; JLR and RR wrote the original draft of the manuscript; all authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.
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Experimental procedures were approved by Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa animal welfare body (ORBEA) and Direção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinaria (DGAV) also approved these experiments following the requirements imposed by the Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.
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Röckner, J.L., Lopes, V.M., Paula, J.R. et al. Octopus crawling on land: physiological and biochemical responses of Octopus vulgaris to emersion. Mar Biol 171, 14 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04333-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04333-x