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Strong El Niño events reshapes migration routes and reproductive phenology of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas)

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Abstract

Understanding how organisms alter their life-history strategies in response to environmental change is critical for informing effective management. However, for pelagic marine species, limited observability of their life history often constrains our understanding of climate-driven shifts in their migration patterns. Oceanic cephalopods exhibit highly climate-mediated movement, making them ideal models for studying climate-driven migrations. In the study, we investigate the migration dynamics of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas), one of the world’s most economically significant cephalopods, using ensemble machine learning to analyze migration patterns and drivers from 1997 to 2024. We discover a distinct annual migratory cycle that is altered by El Niño–Southern Oscillation events. During strong El Niño periods, spawning peaks advance in the year, and migration routes shorten significantly, with surface temperature identified as the primary driver of these shifts. With the duration and occurrence of extreme El Niño events expected to rise due to greenhouse warming, our findings provide mechanistic insights into future migration changes in an economically important species and offer new perspectives for the conservation and management of marine living resources.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available in 10.6084/m9.figshare.31337668.

Code availability

The codes that support the findings of this study are available in 10.6084/m9.figshare.31337668.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to improve this manuscript. Funding statement. This study is funded by the Global Key Fish Species Resource Monitoring and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China in 2025.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine Living Resource Sciences and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China

    Mingfeng Jiang, Sisong Dong, Bilin Liu, Fan Zhang & Xinjun Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Oceanic Fisheries Exploration, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China

    Bilin Liu, Fan Zhang & Xinjun Chen

  3. National Engineering Research Center for Oceanic Fisheries, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China

    Bilin Liu, Fan Zhang & Xinjun Chen

  4. Key Laboratory of Sustainable Exploitation of Oceanic Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China

    Bilin Liu, Fan Zhang & Xinjun Chen

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  1. Mingfeng Jiang
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  2. Sisong Dong
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  3. Bilin Liu
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  4. Fan Zhang
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  5. Xinjun Chen
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Contributions

Mingfeng Jiang, Fan Zhang and Xinjun Chen conceived and designed the study. Mingfeng Jiang and Sisong Dong processed and analyzed the data. Mingfeng Jiang wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. Mingfeng Jiang and Bilin Liu contributed to the interpretation of the results. Fan Zhang and Xinjun Chen revised the manuscript, and approved the final version for submission.

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Fan Zhang or Xinjun Chen.

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Communications Earth and Environment thanks Brian R. MacKenzie and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editors: Heike Langenberg and Marisa McDonald. A peer review file is available.

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Jiang, M., Dong, S., Liu, B. et al. Strong El Niño events reshapes migration routes and reproductive phenology of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas).
Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03509-9

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