Thermal Stress Disrupts Symbiotic Fluid Dynamics in Bobtail Squid
A fluid-dynamics model of the squid's mantle cavity shows that heat stress can cut young squid's ability to capture the bacteria they depend on.
Update (2026): now published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Our new paper models the flows inside the mantle cavity of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes. Newly hatched squid must capture the bacterium Vibrio fischeri from seawater, and they do it by breathing: water drawn into the mantle cavity carries bacteria past the light organ, where they are captured.
Using the method of regularized Stokeslets and a Sobol sensitivity analysis, we found that breathing strength, breathing rate and squid size control how long bacteria stay near the light organ. The shallow, rapid breathing of heat-stressed squid can halve that time, reducing young squid’s ability to recruit a partner that is essential to their survival.
Williams, S., Ruiz, K. A., Heath-Heckman, E., Rutter, E. M., Khatri, S. J. R. Soc. Interface 23(240), 20251136 (2026).
More on this project: Euprymna scolopes.