CEPHALOPOD ECOLOGY AND LIFE CYCLES Sepiolid paralarval diversity in a regional upwelling area of the NE Atlantic Lorena Olmos-Pe ´rez . A ´ lvaro Roura . Graham J. Pierce . A ´ ngel F. Gonza ´lez Received: 27 September 2016 / Revised: 8 March 2017 / Accepted: 6 April 2017 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 Abstract Sepiolid paralarvae are poorly studied, at least in part, because of the difficulty of accurate identification using morphological analysis. To unra- vel the biodiversity of sepiolid paralarvae collected in the Rı ´a de Vigo during the upwelling season (2012–2014), and to overcome the difficulties of traditional identification, sepiolid paralarvae were identified by amplifying the barcoding gene cyto- chrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). In addition, morphometric analysis (Generalised Lineal Models, GLM and Discriminant Analysis, DA) was used to identify morphometric patterns useful for paralarval species identification. Genetic barcoding successfully identified 34 Sepiola pfefferi, 31 Rondeletiola minor, 30 Sepiola tridens,4 Sepiola atlantica,2 Sepietta neglecta and 1 Sepiola ligulata. COI analysis also allowed us to infer that the paralarvae of the three most abundant species belonged to the same populations independently of the year sampled. GLM suggested that total length (statistically different among the three species) and tentacle length (statistically larger in S. pfefferi from the other two species) were good variables to distinguish among species. DA succeeded in separating S. pfefferi from S. tridens, but R. minor overlapped along the first axes with both species, decreasing the accurate classification rate to 67%. Keywords Sepiolidae Á Barcoding Á Morphometries Á Biodiversity Introduction In the last few years, a wide variety of studies have examined how anthropogenic activity and global change are affecting marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity (Inniss et al., 2016). Species with short life cycles, like cephalopods, are especially sensitive to environmental conditions (Boyle & Rodhouse, 2005) and have been highlighted as indicators of local Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10750-017-3186-3) contains supple- mentary material, which is available to authorized users. Guest editors: Erica A. G. Vidal, Ian G. Gleadall & Natalie Moltschaniswskyi / Advances in Cephalopod Ecology and Life Cycles L. Olmos-Pe ´rez (&) Á A ´ . Roura Á A ´ . F. Gonza ´lez Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, CSIC, Eduardo Cabello 6, 36208 Vigo, Spain e-mail: lorenaolmos@iim.csic.es A ´ . Roura La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne, VIC, Australia G. J. Pierce Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Main Street, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire AB41 6AA, UK G. J. Pierce CESAM & Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal 123 Hydrobiologia DOI 10.1007/s10750-017-3186-3