Past, present, and future trends in octopus research

Abstract

This chapter describes past and present publication trends in octopus research following a systematic mapping approach. Publication rates in popular research topics such as life history and ecology are decreasing, while others are increasing and taking the spotlight. Interest in behaviour has seen a considerable uptick in recent years. Also, rapid advances, emerging tools, and widespread access to DNA sequence information have stimulated an increased focus on topics relating to genomics & evolution. Research related to diversity & biogeography is also increasing, especially in the context of the concurrent biodiversity and climate crises. Although global change represents the least studied topic to date, interest has increased tremendously over the past 5 years, with more than double the publication rate observed for behaviour (the topic with the second largest publication rate). Our analysis also provides a geographical perspective; the food and argriculture organization region with the most octopus-related studies is the Mediterranean, followed by the Northeast and Western-Central Atlantic Ocean. Regarding species of interest, Octopus vulgaris stands out as the overwhelming front-runner representing more than half of all records and over five times more than the second most studied species, Octopus maya. We also provide a discussion on future directions for key subjects, including behaviour and cognition, iEcology and citizen science, bio-robotics, deep-sea research, climate change, and culture and welfare, among others, with the hope of providing an agenda for future research.