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Climate change is accelerating the increase of temperatures across the planet and resulting in the warming of oceans. Ocean warming threatens the survival of many aquatic species, including squids, and has introduced physiological, behavioral, and developmental changes, as well as physical changes in their biological materials composition, structure, and properties. Here, we characterize and analyze how the structure, morphology, and mechanical properties of European common squid Loligo vulgaris sucker ring teeth (SRT) are affected by temperature. SRT are predatory teethed structures located inside the suction cups of squids that are used to capture prey and are composed of semicrystalline structural proteins with a high modulus (GPa-range). We observed here that this biological material reversibly softens with temperature, undergoing a glass transition at ∼35°C, to a MPa-range modulus. We analyzed the SRT protein nanostructures as a function of temperature, as well as microscale and macroscale morphological changes, to understand their impact in the material properties. The results suggested that even small deviations from their habitat temperatures can result in significant softening of the material (up to 40% in modulus loss). Temperature changes following recent global climate trends and predictions might affect environmental adaptation in squid species and pose emerging survival challenges to adapt to increasing ocean temperatures.
Helft et al. (Mon,) studied this question.