The role of squid for food web structure and community-level metabolism

Squid differ from fish by their high growth rate, short life span, and feeding behavior. Their fast life strategy is thought to impose a high predation pressure on zooplankton, fish, and other squid preys, and a rapid transfer of energy to upper trophic levels of marine food webs. However, there is a lack of understanding of how squid’s fast life cycle affects the food-web structure, which is needed to project squid biomass across marine regions under shifting climatic conditions. Here, we examine the role of squid on community metabolism and biomass by collecting data on squid somatic growth and incorporating squid in a size- and trait-based fish community model. We show that squid have a 5 times higher average somatic growth rate than fish. Due to their high food demands, squid are constrained to regions of high pelagic secondary production. The presence of squid in these systems is associated with a reduction in total consumer biomass. This decline is caused by an increase in community-level respiration losses associated with squid. Our results indicate that squid might have a large impact on ecosystem structure even at relatively low standing stock biomass. Consequently, the recent proliferation of squid in ecosystems around the world is likely to have significant ecological and socio-economic impacts.