Reproduction and Larval Ecology of Bathyal Echinoderms

幼虫在哪里发育的问题仍然没有答案 几乎所有深海无脊椎动物的生存环境。 他们必须要么 在很远的地方上升到地表沃茨觅食， 温度、压力和其他因素的极端变化，或 它们必须在一个太深而无法支撑 它们的近岸同类以其为食的小型植物。 在 使用载人潜水器的初步研究，成年人被 收集和产卵，并产生幼虫饲养在 实验室 与预测相反，大多数物种 研究的是营养型（喂养），而不是 卵营养型（非摄食型）。 此外，卵营养型 这些物种有漂浮的卵，可能在水面上发育。 这些发现是重要的，因为大多数以前的研究， 深海繁殖是使用保存的材料进行的。 这项研究建议比较发展模式， 和利率，幼虫营养和扩散潜力， 棘皮动物（主要是海胆和海星） 出现在浅海陆棚栖息地到深海带的下游 在巴哈马沃茨。

The question of where larvae develop remains unanswered for virtually all deep-sea invertebrates. They must either ascend great distances to feed in surface waters and tolerate extreme changes in temperature, pressure, and other factors, or they must develop in a region which is too deep to support the small plants on which their near-shore counterparts feed. In preliminary studies using manned submersibles, adults were collected and spawned, and the resulting larvae reared in the laboratory. Contrary to predictions, the majority of species studied were planktotrophic (feeding) rather than lecithotrophic (non-feeding). Moreover, the lecithotrophic species had buoyant eggs that probably develop at the surface. These findings were significant, as most previous studies of deep-sea reproduction were conducted using preserved material. This research proposes to compare developmental patterns and rates, larval nutrition and dispersal potential for several echinoderm species (primarily sea urchins and starfish) occuring from shallow shelf habitats to the lower bathyal zone in Bahamian waters.