Understanding the octopus and its relationships with people

While different octopus books research the animal’s conduct in aquaria or tropical waters worldwide, Dr. David Scheel, a professor of Marine Biology at Alaska Pacific University, takes a singular strategy in his first guide, Many Things Under a Rock. He travels to excessive locations within the Pacific Northwest the place one could not count on these creatures to reside, however they’ve for roughly 330 million years

“I think it is a little surprising to some people that octopuses live in cold water,” Scheel informed Ars. “It might be because we’re used to seeing them in aquariums, and we think of aquariums as tropical locations, although you can run cold water aquariums as well.”

Personal expertise

In Many Things Under a Rock, Scheel regales the reader with anecdotes of his time researching cephalopods in Alaska and Canada. From yearly monitoring of octopus dens to discovering new octopus “cities,” Scheel’s chapters give participating and informative tales on marine biology. Between these chapters are Indigenous tales about octopuses within the Pacific Northwest, revealing their affect on the world’s native tribes.

As Scheel’s analysis focuses on how octopuses have survived in freezing temperatures, the findings inside his new guide have change into particularly related within the wake of warming oceans. “As the planet warms up from climate change, we run into some challenges regarding how the octopus can grow and the environments it faces,” Scheel mentioned. “When cold waters are at the ocean’s surface, it usually means the oceans are well mixed, which means that there’s a lot of bottom water near the surface because everything can turn over. So, you get a lot of nutrients. In the early spring, for example, when the sunlight returns, and you have nutrients in the water, you get these big productive plankton blooms.” These productive blooms assist broaden the quantity of prey for octopuses within the area to feed on, which in flip permits the octopuses to get greater.

However, because the guide describes, the Arctic oceans are warming, and Scheel has seen the other results: fewer blooms and, thus, smaller octopuses. “In addition, other animals are also hungry,” Scheel mentioned. “So, there are more predators. If you combine those two conditions of prolonged growth, so the octopus stays small for a longer period, and more predators that eat small things, then you run into a period in which is very tough for an octopus.”

Scheel and his analysis workforce try to find out how a lot a hotter ocean impacts an octopus’s life cycle within the Pacific Northwest. Within his guide, Scheel dives into different results that local weather change may have on the way forward for octopuses and what individuals can do to assist.

By combining descriptive storytelling and vivid information, Scheel’s guide showcases the mysteries of octopus behaviors, which he and different researchers are working to unravel. Although 300 species of octopuses exist, as Scheel explains inside his work, only a few have been studied on account of their elusive nature and nearly otherworldly skill to cover in plain sight. Many Things Under a Rock summarizes present findings about these creatures which have captured the collective creativeness for hundreds of years and what researchers hope to seek out sooner or later.

The many arms of tradition

Having studied octopuses for over 25 years, Scheel exhibits how his analysis goes past merely marine biology, as he additionally considers the influences of octopuses in indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest. As Scheel writes: “Indigenous science seeks not only to understand but also to respect people and the natural world.” By telling excerpts of Native Alaskan tales, Scheel reveals how people have adopted octopuses into their histories and even genealogies.

As Scheel defined in our interview, “When I started octopus research, I worked with the Native Alaskan communities, which was part of the story. It seemed inappropriate to leave it out.” In Many Things Under a Rock, Scheel highlights that the octopus is seen as a “symbol of knowledge in some native cultures.” He informed Ars that it’s an apt metaphor: “You can see that in the way the arms reach into everything and explore every nook and every cranny, in the way octopuses are such curious animals.”

Throughout his guide, Scheel compares indigenous tales with hands-on science. “I got a lot of joy out of the resonance between the different perspectives that you would find in Alaska Native cultures, or First Nations cultures in Canada, Hawaiian cultures, and trying to do science with octopuses,” he informed Ars. “I found it intriguing to find parallels between how octopuses were portrayed in legends and how they were portrayed in science. This book talks about the giant octopuses that destroy native villages in some of the cultural heritage of the Alaskan Natives. Then these giant octopuses, or possibly not, wash up on shores [in other places] and get reported in scientific journals.”

Scheel’s in-depth analysis and relationships with these indigenous peoples showcased in his guide illustrate a robust ardour for cephalopods that readers will undoubtedly take pleasure in. Many Things Under a Rock speaks to avid octopus followers and the broader viewers within the intersections between science, historical past, and folklore.

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the science communicator at JILA (a joint physics analysis institute between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder) and a contract science journalist. Her principal writing focuses are quantum physics, quantum know-how, deep know-how, social media, and the variety of individuals in these fields, significantly girls and folks from minority ethnic and racial teams. Follow her on LinkedIn or go to her web site.