Ecology Summary - Dosidicus gigas

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Ecology of Dosidicus gigas

Main Ref.	Roper, C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney and C.E. Nauen, 1984
Remarks	Inhabits offshore areas of continental shelves from surface to depths of at least 1200 m. Found over the shelves and near shores during feeding. Adults undergo diel vertical migrations with a night lift to the 0-200 m water layer, going down at daytime to depths of 800-1,000 m and deeper (Ref. 2130). Upper temperature limits range from 30 to 32°C in equatorial areas, while deeper water temperature limits are not less than 4 to 4.5°C. Active predator, feeds actively at dusk and dawn. Commonly feeds on copepods, hyperiid amphipods, euphausiids, pelagic shrimps and red crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes), heteropod molluscs, squid, octopods and various fish. Exhibits cannibalism, but only on juvenile squids (Ref. 1982).

Main Ref.

Roper, C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney and C.E. Nauen, 1984

Remarks

Inhabits offshore areas of continental shelves from surface to depths of at least 1200 m. Found over the shelves and near shores during feeding. Adults undergo diel vertical migrations with a night lift to the 0-200 m water layer, going down at daytime to depths of 800-1,000 m and deeper (Ref. 2130). Upper temperature limits range from 30 to 32°C in equatorial areas, while deeper water temperature limits are not less than 4 to 4.5°C. Active predator, feeds actively at dusk and dawn. Commonly feeds on copepods, hyperiid amphipods, euphausiids, pelagic shrimps and red crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes), heteropod molluscs, squid, octopods and various fish. Exhibits cannibalism, but only on juvenile squids (Ref. 1982).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Dosidicus gigas may be found.

Habitat

Substrate	Pelagic;
Substrate Ref.	Roper, C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney and C.E. Nauen, 1984
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.	Roper, C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney and C.E. Nauen, 1984
Associations
Associated with
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.
Feeding habit	hunting macrofauna (predator)
Feeding habit Ref.

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition	4.15	0.54			Troph of juv./adults.
From individual food items	4.11	0.67			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.	Markaida, U. and O. Sosa-Nishizaki, 2003

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