Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:37:29.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the use of ammonium for buoyancy in squids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

M. R. Clarke
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth
E. J. Denton
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth
J. B. Gilpin-Brown
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Squids (teuthoids) fall into two distinct groups according to their density in sea water. Squids of one group are considerably denser than sea water and must swim to stop sinking; squids in the other group are nearly neutrally buoyant. Analyses show that in almost all the neutrally buoyant squids large amounts of ammonium are present. This ammonium is not uniformly distributed throughout the body but is mostly confined to special tissues where its concentration can approach half molar. The locations of such tissues differ according to the species and developmental stage of the squid. It is clear that the ammonium-rich solution are almost isosmotic with sea water but of lower density and they are present in sufficient volume to provide the main buoyancy mechanism of these squids. A variety of evidence is given which suggests that squids in no less than 12 of the 26 families achieve near-neutral buoyancy in this way and that 14 families contain squids appreciably denser than sea water [at least one family contains both types of squid]. Some of the ammonium-rich squids are extremely abundant in the oceans.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1979

References

REFERENCES

Amoore, J. E., Rodgers, K. & Young, J. Z., 1959. Sodium and potassium in the endolymph and perilymph of the statocyst and the eye of Octopus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 36, 709714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, A. de C., Clarke, M. R. & Harris, M. J., 1973. The N.I.O. combination net (RMT 1+8) and further developments of rectangular midwater trawls. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 53, 167184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1966. A review of the systematics and ecology of oceanic squids. Advances in Marine Biology, 4, 91300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1969. A new midwater trawl for sampling discrete depth horizons. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 49, 945960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1977. Beaks, nets and numbers. Symposia of the Zoological Society cf London, no. 38, 89126.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1979. Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale biology. 'Discovery’ Reports. (In the Press.)Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R., Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1969. On the buoyancy of squid of the families Histioteuthidae, Octopoteuthidae and Chiroteuthidae. Journal of Physiology, 203, 4950P.Google ScholarPubMed
Conway, E. J., 1940. Microdiffusion Analysis and Volumetric Error. 306 pp. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.Google Scholar
Crowther, A. B. & Large, R. S., 1956. Improved conditions for the sodium phenoxide-sodium hypochlorite method for the determination of ammonia. Analyst, 81, 6465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1961. The buoyancy of the cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis (L.). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 41, 319342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Gilpin-Brown, J. B., 1973. Floatation mechanisms in modern and fossil cephalopods. Advances in Marine Biology, 11, 197268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J., Gilpin-Brown, J. B. & Shaw, T. I., 1969. A buoyancy mechanism found in cranchid squid. Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 174, 271279.Google Scholar
Denton, E. J. & Shaw, T. I., 1961. The buoyancy of gelatinous marine animals. Journal of Physiology, 161, 1415P.Google Scholar
Filippova, J. A., 1972. New data on the squid fauna (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida) from the Scotia Sea (Antarctic). Malacologia, 11, 391406.Google Scholar
Fuglister, F. C., 1960. Atlantic Ocean Atlas. 209 pp. Woods Hole, Massachusetts: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Google Scholar
Packard, A., 1972. Cephalopods and fish: the limits of convergence. Biological Reviews, 47, 241307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roper, C. F. E. & Young, R. E., 1968. The family Promachoteuthidae (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida). 1. A re-evaluation of its systematic position based on new material from Antarctic and adjacent waters. Antarctic Research Series, 11, 203214.Google Scholar
Roper, C. F. E., Young, R. E. & Voss, G. L., 1969. An illustrated key to the families of the order Teuthoidea (Cephalopoda). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, no. 13, 32 pp.Google Scholar
Voss, G. L., 1953. A new family, genus and species of myopsid squid from the Florida Keys. Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean, 2, 602609.Google Scholar
Young, J. Z., 1970. The stalked eyes of Bathothauma (Mollusca, Cephalopoda). Journal of Zoology, 162, 437447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, R. E. & Roper, C. F. E., 1968. The Batoteuthidae, a new family of squid (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida) from Antarctic waters. Antarctic Research Series, 11, 185202.Google Scholar