Abstract
The 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.
Highlights
Ovary resorption, termed oosorption or reabsorption, is a common, but poorly understood phenomenon known in several species of clawed lobsters [1,2,3,4]
Resorption has been studied in the American lobster Homarus americanus [6], the European lobster H. gammarus [7] and the Norway lobster N. norvegicus [8]
Results of the present study can clearly refute that full ovary resorption in N. norvegicus is caused by the absence of insemination in affected females, insights on the quantity and quality of sperm females receive may yet play a role in the phenomenon of resorption
Summary
Termed oosorption or reabsorption, is a common, but poorly understood phenomenon known in several species of clawed lobsters [1,2,3,4]. The process of resorbing ovaries instead of spawning allows females to recycle and thereby conserve nutrients accumulated in their ovaries [4]. Becker et al [5] recently studied ovary maturation in the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, and distinguished two different pathways in the female reproductive cycle (Fig. 1a). The resorption of a few remaining oocytes that were not released during spawning is a regular process of the reproductive cycle and is observed in recently spawned, ovigerous (berried) females (termed “partial resorption”, see [5]). The full resorption of ovaries is rather an interruption of the regular reproductive cycle: affected females do not spawn, but skip the reproductive season and completely resorb their ovaries (“full resorption”, see [5]). Herrick [9] described ovaries in this condition as “marbled” (“green and lemon coloured”) and Allen [1] observed a darkening of the hemolymph in resorbing females, which results in tainted specimens (“black lobsters”) that were
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