Exploring the effects of warming seas by using the optimal and pejus temperatures of the embryo of three Octopoda species in the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Using data related to thermal optimal and pejus of the embryos of Octopus americanus from Brazil and O. insularis and O. maya from Mexico, this study aimed to project the potential distribution areas in the Gulf of Mexico and predict distribution shifts under different Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios (RCP 6 and 8.5) for the years 2050 and 2100. The different thermal tolerances elicited different responses to current and future scenarios. In this sense, O. insularis and O. maya thermal niches stretch from the Caribbean to Florida. Nevertheless, O. insularis may inhabit warmer areas than O. maya. Surprisingly, no area was considered thermally habitable for O. americanus, which could have been associated with the use of data of populations thermally adapted to temperate conditions south of Brazil. According to models, a warming scenario would cause a re- striction of the available thermal niche of O. maya, while O. insularis could expand under RCP 6 scenarios. This restriction was more substantial in the RCP 8.5 scenario. Nevertheless, under the RCP 8.5 scenario, the temperature in 2100 may negatively affect even O. insularis, the species most thermal tolerant. If our results are accurate, the fishing yield of O. insularis will increase in the future, replacing the heavily exploited O. maya in the coasts of the southern Gulf of Mexico. Regarding O. americanus, no inference might be made until thermal tolerances of locally adapted populations can be studied.