Ovary resorption in the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) and its possible causes with special reference to sperm storage

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorBecker, Carola
dc.contributor.authorDick, Jaimie T. A.
dc.contributor.authorCunningham, E. Mánus
dc.contributor.authorLundy, Mathieu
dc.contributor.authorBell, Ewen
dc.contributor.authorEagling, Lawrence
dc.contributor.authorSigwart, Julia D.
dc.contributor.departmentFisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-22T14:14:22Z
dc.date.available2024-03-22T14:14:22Z
dc.date.issued2020-10-27
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 8 October 2020; Published online - 27 October 2020
dc.description.abstractThe Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is an important fisheries species in the North-East Atlantic area. In some circumstances, mature females of Nephrops norvegicus can resorb their ovary rather than completing spawning, but the implications of this phenomenon to reproductive biology and fisheries sustainability are not known. To understand after effects of ovary resorption, we studied long-term demographic data sets (1994–2017) collected from the western Irish Sea and the North Sea. Our considerations focused on potential correlations among the frequency of resorption, female insemination, and body size of resorbing females. Resorption was continuously rare in the western Irish Sea (less than 1%); whereas much higher rates with considerable year-to-year variation were observed in the North Sea (mean 9%). Resorption started in autumn after the spawning season (summer) had passed. The frequency stayed high throughout winter and declined again in spring. As sperm limitation can occur in male-biased fisheries, we expected a lack of insemination could be responsible for resorption, but affected females were indeed inseminated. Resorbing females were significantly larger than other sexually mature females in the North Sea, but the opposite trend was observed in the western Irish Sea. It is therefore possible that other, environmental factors or seasonal shifts, may trigger females to resorb their ovaries instead of spawning. Resorption may as well represent a natural phenomenon allowing flexibility in the periodicity of growth and reproduction. In this sense, observations of annual versus biennial reproductive cycles in different regions may be closely linked to the phenomenon of ovary resorption.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis study was funded by the UK Sea Fish Industry Authority’s (Seafish) Strategic Investment Programme and Kilkeel/Whitby Seafoods (U.K.) (Grant Number SR-7941610).
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/685
dc.identifier.citationBecker, C., Dick, J.T.A., Mánus Cunningham, E., Lundy, M., Bell, E., Eagling, L. and Sigwart, J.D. (2020) ‘Ovary resorption in the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) and its possible causes with special reference to sperm storage’, Helgoland Marine Research. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s10152-020-00543-8.
dc.identifier.issn1438-3888
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s10152-020-00543-8
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBMC
dc.rightsOpen Access - This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
dc.titleOvary resorption in the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) and its possible causes with special reference to sperm storage
dc.typeArticle
dcterms.dateAccepted2020-10-08
dcterms.dateSubmitted2019-08-01

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
s10152-020-00543-8.pdf
Size:
2.47 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download

Collections

Journal Articles