A Magnetic Map Leads Juvenile European Eels to the Gulf Stream ...

• Main Authors: Naisbett-Jones, Lewis C., Putman, Nathan F., Stephenson, Jessica F., Ladak, Sam, Young, Kyle A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2017
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla; Animal migration; Animal navigation; Magnetic orientation; Ocean currents; Sargasso Sea; Sensory ecology; European eel
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000130641; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/242253

Migration allows animals to track the environmental conditions that maximize growth, survival, and reproduction [1, 2, 3]. Improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying migrations allows for improved management of species and ecosystems [1, 2, 3, 4]. For centuries, the catadromous European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has provided one of Europe’s most important fisheries and has sparked considerable scientific inquiry, most recently owing to the dramatic collapse of juvenile recruitment [5]. Larval eels are transported by ocean currents associated with the Gulf Stream System from Sargasso Sea breeding grounds to coastal and freshwater habitats from North Africa to Scandinavia [6, 7]. After a decade or more, maturing adults migrate back to the Sargasso Sea, spawn, and die [8]. However, the migratory mechanisms that bring juvenile eels to Europe and return adults to the Sargasso Sea remain equivocal [9, 10]. Here, we used a “magnetic displacement” experiment [11, 12] to show that the orientation of juvenile ... : Current Biology, 27 (8) ...