Meaghan Klos

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Gilchrist, Sandra

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

Octopus vulgaris occupies a critical role in its ecosystem, as it is an important food source, ecosystem engineer, and a generalist predator. Understanding diet, especially diet shifts, is crucial to make predictions about ecosystem health. In addition to diet, octopuses can have a range of cohabiters in their dens that scavenge from the midden, the remains of the octopus’ consumed prey returned to the den. The dynamics surrounding why cohabiters exist at some dens and not others are not completely understood. Octopuses on a relatively healthy reef located at Cayos Cochinos, Honduras, were studied. Prey remains were retrieved from octopus dens and counted to understand preferences of prey that were primarily duraphagic. These results were compared to two data sets in this area from 2009 and 2010 to map a potential change in preference over time. Most octopuses from all years selected bivalves the most, but crustaceans were highly represented in 2017, which is novel from prior data sets. Hermit crabs of the same small species were frequent cohabiters, though they were present at only less than half of the dens examined in 2017. Hermit crabs were not limited by depth, and typically were found in the middens of larger octopuses with diverse prey represented. There is some evidence to support that these hermit crabs prefer larger dens as well.

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