Factors affecting early life-history processes in marine benthic invertebrates

生活在海底的无脊椎生物，如海星、海胆、螃蟹、龙虾、蛤蜊和贻贝，有着复杂的生命周期。作为成年人，它们在海底生活和觅食，但它们产生的幼虫可能会在水柱中度过几个小时到几个月，被水流携带。 成熟后，幼虫移近海底，附着在海底，经过一系列形态和生理变化，变成幼鱼。这些幼鱼长成有生殖能力的成年鱼。返回成年种群的新补充数量将取决于在水柱中存活、迁移到海底并成功转变为幼鱼的幼鱼数量。虽然我们了解影响成虫生存的因素，因为它们相对较大的尺寸和栖息地的可达性，但我们对幼虫和幼虫的生存知之甚少。我们的研究将集中在影响幼虫和少年生存的因素，以及这些生活史阶段之间的过渡。在沿海海湾，我们将同时采样幼虫和少年，并研究如何随着时间和空间的不同，为不同的物种，两个阶段之间的关系。我们还将跟踪幼虫，并尝试使用不同的方法来测量死亡率。在实验室，我们将进行实验，以测量温度和幼虫行为对捕食的影响。我们还将测量幼虫供应，并试图估计深海中不同底栖无脊椎动物种群之间的联系。了解在这些早期生命史阶段发生的过程以及各阶段之间的联系，对于成功管理无脊椎动物物种和渔业以及海洋保护区内种群的成功至关重要。

Invertebrate organisms that live on the seafloor, such as sea stars, sea urchins, crabs, lobsters, clams and mussels, have complex life cycles. As adults, they live and feed on the seafloor, but they produce larvae which may spend from a few hours to months in the water column, being carried around by currents. After they mature, larvae move near the seafloor, attach to it and, following a sequence of morphological and physiological changes, turn into juveniles. These juveniles grow into reproductive adults. The number of new recruits that return to the adult populations will depend on the number of larvae that survive the period spent in the water column, migrate to the seafloor and transition successfully into juveniles. Although we understand the factors that affect survival of adults because of their relatively large size and accessibility of their habitat, we know less about larval and juvenile survival. Our research will focus on factors that influence larval and juvenile survival, as well as the transition between these life history stages. In a coastal embayment, we will sample concurrently larvae and juveniles and examine how relationships between the two stages vary over time and across space, for different species. We will also track larvae and attempt to measure rates of mortality using different approaches. In the laboratory, we will conduct experiments to measure the effects of temperature and larval behavior on predation. We will also measure larval supply and attempt to estimate connectivity among different populations of benthic invertebrates in the deep sea. Understanding the processes that occur at these early life history stages, as well as the linkages between stages, is important for the successful management of invertebrate species and fisheries, and the success of populations in marine protected areas.