Núñez-González Raibel, Sarmiento-Lezcano Airam N, Caballero María J, Tilic Ekin, Castro-Hernández José Juan
Instituto Universitario EcoAqua, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
Centro Oceanográfico de A. Coruña. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, A. Coruña, Spain.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 1;20(8):e0328273. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328273. eCollection 2025.
The life cycle of many Echinoidea species remains poorly understood despite research conducted in temperate and tropical-subtropical regions. Common species in the Central-Eastern Atlantic's shallow waters include Paracentrotus lividus, Arbacia lixula, and Sphaerechinus granularis. Nevertheless, significant gaps in understanding their life cycles persist. This study discusses the reproductive cycles of three sea urchin species in rocky coastal ecosystems around Gran Canaria Island (Spain) (27º45´N, 15º45´W) from June 2020 to May 2021. Morphological measurements reveal that test length increases without a corresponding weight gain. The average size at first maturity (L50) was greater in females (A. lixula 46.26 mm; P. lividus 46.03 mm; S. granularis 49.67 mm SL) than in males (A. lixula 43.55 mm; P. lividus 42.82 mm; S. granularis 48.57 mm SL). The gonadosomatic index in females exceeded that of males. Histological analysis showed oocytes at various developmental stages, indicating asynchronous ovarian development with successive batch spawning seasons. Reproductive activity was generally observed during the warm season for all three species, likely coinciding with increased nutrient availability in Canarian waters. Notably, P. lividus was the only species to show two reproductive seasons annually in San Cristobal. DNA analysis confirmed species identification and provided new fragments of the COI gene, now available in GenBank for future population analysis. These findings represent the first reproductive data for these species in the North Atlantic region, offering valuable insights into their populations and establishing baseline information for managing sea urchin populations.
尽管在温带和热带 - 亚热带地区开展了相关研究，但许多海胆纲物种的生命周期仍未得到充分了解。中东大西洋浅水区的常见物种包括紫球海胆、刺冠海胆和粒刺球海胆。然而，在理解它们的生命周期方面仍存在重大差距。本研究探讨了2020年6月至2021年5月期间西班牙大加那利岛（北纬27º45´，西经15º45´）周围岩石海岸生态系统中三种海胆物种的繁殖周期。形态学测量结果显示，壳径增加但体重未相应增加。雌性个体首次成熟时的平均大小（L50）大于雄性个体（刺冠海胆雌性为46.26毫米；紫球海胆雌性为46.03毫米；粒刺球海胆雌性为49.67毫米标准体长；刺冠海胆雄性为43.55毫米；紫球海胆雄性为42.82毫米；粒刺球海胆雄性为48.57毫米标准体长）。雌性个体的性腺指数超过雄性个体。组织学分析显示了处于不同发育阶段的卵母细胞，表明卵巢发育不同步且有连续的分批产卵季节。通常在温暖季节观察到这三种物种的繁殖活动，这可能与加那利海域营养物质供应增加相吻合。值得注意的是，紫球海胆是圣克里斯托瓦尔唯一每年有两个繁殖季节的物种。DNA分析确认了物种身份，并提供了细胞色素氧化酶亚基I（COI）基因的新片段，现已存入GenBank以供未来进行种群分析。这些发现代表了北大西洋地区这些物种的首批繁殖数据，为了解它们的种群提供了有价值的见解，并为管理海胆种群建立了基线信息。
