THE ENERGY ACCUMULATION AND ITS RELATION TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES OF MALE ILLEX ARGENTINUS

Tissue energy accumulation is an important indicator for measuring the energy reserves in an organism and its responses to environmental conditions. In order to better understand the energy accumulation and adaptability of male Illex argentinus in their living environment, we investigated the energy accumulated in the mantle soma, digestive gland and testis of male I. argentinus specimens collected from 2020 to 2021, utilizing the tissue energy density technique. The results showed that the energy density of mantle soma, digestive gland and testis was determined (20.15±0.64), (30.00±2.62) and (19.66±0.33) kJ/g, respectively. Among these, soma energy accumulation accounted for the largest proportion, followed by the digestive gland, with the testis showing the smallest proportion. There were significant interannual differences in the relative energy accumulation of soma and digestive gland tissues, but not in the relative energy accumulation of testis tissue. The total energy accumulation was positively correlated with mantle length, and the relative energy accumulation of soma and digestive gland tissues were also linearly correlated with mantle length. However, there was no significant correlation between the relative energy accumulation of testis and mantle length. In addition, sea bottom temperature significantly influenced the relative energy accumulation of soma and digestive gland, with sea surface temperature was also an important factor affecting the relative energy accumulation of soma. By contrary, the relative energy accumulation of testis did not show any correlation with the environmental variables considered in this study, including sea surface temperature, sea bottom temperature, water salinity, sea surface height and chlorophyll a concentration. The results of this study indicate that there are tissue differences in energy accumulation for male I. argentinus. Furthermore, the relative energy accumulation of soma and digestive gland was closely related to body size and water temperature. However, the relative energy accumulation of testis remained unaffected by changes in body size or environmental fluctuations in the habitat. These findings provide valuable data references for future research on energy accumulation and environmental adaptability.