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1 April 2008 Microecological Impacts of Global Warming on Crustaceans—Temperature Induced Shifts in the Release of Larvae from American Lobster, Homarus americanus, Females
Michael Tlusty, Anita Metzler, Elon Malkin, Jason Goldstein, Maureen Koneval
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Abstract

As ocean temperatures increase, crustaceans become subjected to more immediate, microecological impacts because of their exothermically-driven growth and development. In this laboratory-based study, ovigerous American lobster (Homarus americanus) were allowed to incubate their eggs for either a normal period of time (7–9 months including time at temperatures <10°C), or were held in water >10°C to speed up the rate of egg development (4–6 months). Females that had shorter incubation times had longer periods of larval release compared with females that incubated eggs for a normal period of time. Females incubating eggs for a shorter period of time also produced more larvae, and this was explained by the daily loss of a small number of eggs. Subsequent modeling of the relationship between dates of egg extrusion and hatching using data compiled from Massachusetts Bay demonstrated that there was a critical period in the fall at which larval development would switch from a resultant hatch in the spring to a hatch in the late fall or winter. The short-term implications of global warming on egg development and hatching in lobsters is discussed, including the production of larvae at suboptimal times of the year, as well as a temporal change in the abundance of larvae during the hatching season. Either of these events can lead to an increase in larval mortality and hence a decrease in population productivity.

Michael Tlusty, Anita Metzler, Elon Malkin, Jason Goldstein, and Maureen Koneval "Microecological Impacts of Global Warming on Crustaceans—Temperature Induced Shifts in the Release of Larvae from American Lobster, Homarus americanus, Females," Journal of Shellfish Research 27(2), 443-448, (1 April 2008). https://doi.org/10.2983/0730-8000(2008)27[443:MIOGWO]2.0.CO;2
Published: 1 April 2008
KEYWORDS
American lobster
global warming
hatching
Homarus americanus
larval release
temperature
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