Mar Biol (2006) 150:237–244 DOI 10.1007/s00227-006-0342-0 123 RESEARCH ARTICLE Food effects on statolith composition of the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) Karsten Zumholz · Thor H. Hansteen · Andreas Klügel · Uwe Piatkowski Received: 30 December 2005 / Accepted: 19 April 2006 / Published online: 30 May 2006 © Springer-Verlag 2006 Abstract The concentration of trace elements within cephalopod statoliths can provide a record of the envi- ronmental characteristics at the time of calciWcation. To reconstruct accurately the environmental character- istics at the time of calciWcation, it is important to understand the inXuence of as many factors as possible. To test the hypothesis that the elemental composition of cuttleWsh statoliths could be inXuenced by diet, juve- nile Sepia oYcinalis were fed either shrimp Crangon sp. or Wsh Clupea harengus under equal temperature and salinity regimes in laboratory experiments. Ele- ment concentrations in diVerent regions of the stato- liths (core–lateral dome–rostrum) were determined using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA- ICPMS). The ratios of Sr/Ca, Ba/ Ca, Mn/Ca and Y/Ca in the statolith’s lateral dome of shrimp-fed cuttleWsh were signiWcantly higher than in the statolith’s lateral dome of Wsh-fed cuttleWsh. Moreover, signiWcant diVerences between statolith regions were found for all analysed elements. The fact that diet adds a considerable variation especially to Sr/ Ca and Ba/Ca must be taken into account in future micro-chemical statolith studies targeting cephalopod’s life history. Introduction Statoliths, the earstones of cephalopods, are composed mostly of calcium carbonate (aragonite form) but also include protein and minor and trace elements. The con- centrations of elements in statoliths can provide substan- tial information for the reconstruction of cephalopod’s environmental histories (Ikeda et al. 2003). Further- more, stock separations based on statolith microchemis- try appear to be possible (Arkhipkin et al. 2004). Statolith composition studies generally assume that ele- ment incorporation into the statolith is mainly inXuenced by chemical and physical parameters of the surrounding water (Yatsu et al. 1998). However, strontium is also incorporated into the statolith matrix via the cephalopod’s diet (Hurley et al. 1985). In their study, arti Wcially enriched diet (shrimp soaked in strontium chloride solu- tion) was used to chemically mark distinct statolith regions. Therefore a positive eVect of Sr in the diet on the statolith Sr/Ca was revealed, but a quanti Wcation of this inXuence has not been shown yet. Furthermore, strontium is the only element tested for a dietary eVect up to now. Research on the structurally similar Wsh otoliths has shown that many factors can aVect otolith chemistry (for a detailed review, see Campana 1999). In addition to temperature and salinity, growth rate (Sadovy and Severin 1992; Mugiya and Satoh 1997), gonad develop- ment (Kalish 1991), stress (Kalish 1991; Townsend et al. 1992) and diet (Limburg 1995; Gallahar and Kingsford 1996; Buckel et al. 2004) are all thought to inXuence incorporation of elements into otoliths. The Communicated by O. Kinne, Oldendorf/Luhe K. Zumholz (&) · T. H. Hansteen · U. Piatkowski IFM-GEOMAR, Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany e-mail: kzumholz@ifm-geomar.de A. Klügel Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Universität Bremen, Postfach 330440, 28334 Bremen, Germany