Echinoderm egg and larval quality as a function of adult nutritional state

Gauthier-Villars 1996

Differences in egg and larval quality for some sea urchins and seastars were investigated in the field acid in the laboratory. In the field, sea urchins and seastars found at sites with an abundant supply of food were larger, and they produced large numbers of large, high quality eggs. For some female seastars, nutritional history determined the response to variation in food supply in the laboratory. While an increase in food ration did not affect the size of eggs produced by females from the favorable site, an increase in food ration led to an increase in egg size for those from the less favorable site. For all the echinoderms examined, egg numbers decreased when conditions became unfavorable. Larvae from females living in favorable environments grew and developed faster, and larval survival was high. A large percentage of sea urchin larvae from females living in favorable environments metamorphosed compared to those living in less favorable environments. Juvenile size did not vary as a function of past nutritional state in sea urchins but it did in seastars. Large numbers of high quality juveniles were produced by seastars from the favorable site. The differences in egg and larval quality observed in field studies might be due to differences in the abundance of preferred algae (food for some sea urchins) and molluscan species (food for some seastars) at the different sites. In laboratory studies, the responses to food availability were also influenced by the nutritional and gametogenic states of the females at the time of collection and by the duration of the experiments.

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https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00094/20488/18158.pdf
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00094/20488/
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