The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is an important fisheries species in the North-East Atlantic area. In some circumstances, mature females of Nephrops norvegicus can resorb their ovary rather than completing spawning, but the implications of this phenomenon to reproductive biology and fisheries sustainability are not known. To understand after effects of ovary resorption, we studied long-term demographic data sets (1994–2017) collected from the western Irish Sea and the North Sea. Our considerations focused on potential correlations among the frequency of resorption, female insemination, and body size of resorbing females. Resorption was continuously rare in the western Irish Sea (less than 1%); whereas much higher rates with considerable year-to-year variation were observed in the North Sea (mean 9%). Resorption started in autumn after the spawning season (summer) had passed. The frequency stayed high throughout winter and declined again in spring. As sperm limitation can occur in male-biased fisheries, we expected a lack of insemination could be responsible for resorption, but affected females were indeed inseminated. Resorbing females were significantly larger than other sexually mature females in the North Sea, but the opposite trend was observed in the western Irish Sea. It is therefore possible that other, environmental factors or seasonal shifts, may trigger females to resorb their ovaries instead of spawning. Resorption may as well represent a natural phenomenon allowing flexibility in the periodicity of growth and reproduction. In this sense, observations of annual versus biennial reproductive cycles in different regions may be closely linked to the phenomenon of ovary resorption.

中文翻译：

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挪威龙虾（Nephrops norvegicus）的卵巢吸收及其可能的原因特别涉及精子的储存。

挪威龙虾Nephrops norvegicus是东北大西洋地区的重要渔业物种。在某些情况下，Nephrops norvegicus的成年雌性可以吸收其卵巢，而不是完成产卵，但是这种现象对生殖生物学和渔业可持续性的影响尚不清楚。为了了解卵巢吸收后的影响，我们研究了从爱尔兰西部海域和北海收集的长期人口统计学数据集（1994-2017年）。我们的考虑集中在再吸收频率，雌性受精和再吸收雌性体型之间的潜在相关性。吸收作用在爱尔兰西部海域一直很少见（不到1％）。而在北海，则观察到更高的发病率，且年际变化很大（平均为9％）。产卵季节（夏季）过去后，秋天开始吸收。整个冬季的频率一直很高，而在春季再次下降。由于男性偏向的渔业可能会出现精子受精的情况，因此我们预计缺乏人工授精可能会导致再吸收，但受影响的女性的确是人工授精的。在北海，吸收性雌性明显大于其他具有性成熟能力的雌性，但在爱尔兰西部海域则观察到相反的趋势。因此，其他环境因素或季节变化可能会触发雌性吸收卵巢而不是产卵。吸收也可以代表一种自然现象，可以在生长和繁殖的周期中灵活选择。在这个意义上说，