Glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) imprint the magnetic direction of tidal currents from their juvenile estuaries

Abstract The European eel ( Anguilla anguilla ) hatches in the Sargasso Sea and migrates to European and North African freshwater. As glass eels, they reach estuaries where they become pigmented. Glass eels use a tidal phase-dependent magnetic compass for orientation, but whether their magnetic dire...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications Biology
Main Authors: Cresci, Alessandro, Durif, Caroline M., Paris, Claire B., Shema, Steven D., Skiftesvik, Anne Berit, Browman, Howard I.
Other Authors: Norges Forskningsråd, National Science Foundation
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0619-8
http://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0619-8.pdf
http://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0619-8
Description
Summary:Abstract The European eel ( Anguilla anguilla ) hatches in the Sargasso Sea and migrates to European and North African freshwater. As glass eels, they reach estuaries where they become pigmented. Glass eels use a tidal phase-dependent magnetic compass for orientation, but whether their magnetic direction is innate or imprinted during migration is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that glass eels imprint their tidal-dependent magnetic compass direction at the estuaries where they recruit. We collected 222 glass eels from estuaries flowing in different cardinal directions in Austevoll, Norway. We observed the orientation of the glass eels in a magnetic laboratory where the magnetic North was rotated. Glass eels oriented towards the magnetic direction of the prevailing tidal current occurring at their recruitment estuary. Glass eels use their magnetic compass to memorize the magnetic direction of tidal flows. This mechanism could help them to maintain their position in an estuary and to migrate upstream.