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MEPS prepress abstract   -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14797

Maternal investment of kelp crabs from central Chile is associated with the level of environmental fluctuations and predictability

Francisca Fernández, Fabián Guzmán-Rivas, Ángel Urzúa, Mauricio F. Landaeta, Marco Fusi, Simone Baldanzi*

*Corresponding author:

ABSTRACT: Environmental fluctuation dictates life cycles in many ecosystems on earth, especially within marine coastal areas. The magnitude of those fluctuations at ecologically relevant timescales (i.e., hours and days) induce phenotypical adjustment in aquatic organisms, including maternal investment in offspring. However, the effect of the magnitude and the periodicity of those fluctuations on animal physiology has been poorly investigated. In this study, we investigated the correlation between that environmental fluctuation and the maternal investment on offspring. We focused on one population of the kelp crab Taliepus dentatus from central Chile and we consider whether the fluctuations of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity are associated with temporal changes in maternal investment in early embryos (volume, lipid content and fatty acids composition) over a period of a year. We used remote data loggers deployed at an ecologically relevant temporal scale to calculate the monthly magnitude, periodicity and predictability of environmental fluctuations. We found substantial among-females’ variation in embryo volume, lipid content and fatty acid compositions during a year mostly associated with seasonality (average environmental conditions). However, embryo lipid content and essential fatty acids (ARA, DHA, EPA) showed a clear negative relation with the monthly predictability of the environmental fluctuations. This study showed how the integration of environmental fluctuations and their predictability can improve our understanding of the reproductive ecology of marine coastal species.