Secrets of the Octopus Garden: Moms nest at thermal springs to give their young the best chance for survival
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Thursday, August 24, 2023
Male, Female, Nautilus, Sea, Pacific Ocean, Breeding, Davidson Seamount, Parent, Infection, Geology, Survival, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Octopus's Garden, Snail, Temperature, Vent pecking, Reproduction, Mother, Muusoctopus, Death, Garden City, Animal, Nursery, Risk, Water, Graneledone boreopacifica, Injury, Egg, Rare-earth element, Silviculture, Lobster, Mineral oil, Poultry farming
It’s a magical place, especially if you’re an octopus.
Key Points:
- It’s a magical place, especially if you’re an octopus.
- We now know why these amazing creatures gather at this and other underwater warm springs.
- In a new study involving scientists from several fields, we explain why octopuses migrate to the Octopus Garden.
Life in the Octopus Garden
- The Octopus Garden, at the base of Davidson Seamount about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Monterey, California, is the largest of a handful of octopus nurseries recently discovered in the Eastern Pacific.
- Using Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s deep-sea robots and sensors, we studied and mapped the Octopus Garden during several visits over three years to examine the links between thermal springs and breeding success for pearl octopuses.
- A time-lapse camera that kept watch over a group of nesting mothers for six months opened a window into the dynamic life in the Octopus Garden.
- We saw that nothing went to waste at the Octopus Garden.
Warmer water speeds up embryo development
- The longer the incubation period, the greater the risk that an embryo might not survive to hatch.
- Such an extended brooding period would be the longest known for any animal, exposing an embryo to exceptional risks.
- Instead, temperature and oxygen sensors we were able to slip inside octopus nests documented a much warmer microenvironment around the eggs.
- On average, the temperature inside octopus nests was about 41 F (5.1 C), considerably warmer than the surrounding waters.
- We predicted that octopus embryos would develop faster in this warmer water.
Nurseries highlight risks to seafloor habitat
- Here, water percolating beneath the seafloor picks up heat from Earth’s mantle before it’s channeled out from volcanic rock outcrops like Davidson Seamount.
- These systems have become an emerging focus in seafloor geology, though only a few have been discovered so far.
- The recent discoveries of octopus nurseries off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, also near hydrothermal springs, suggests these areas may be more common than previously thought.