Maternal effects in marine decapod crustaceans

许多无脊椎动物物种的母亲表现出的行为被认为可以提高其后代的生存率，这些行为统称为母性效应。 母亲可能会生更大的蛋，在单个蛋上投入更多的能量，在不同的时间产卵，孵化它们的蛋，保护孵化的幼鸟免受捕食者的伤害，甚至用营养（护士）蛋喂养新孵化的后代。 虽然其中一些行为显然是适应性的（例如，幼雏护理和保育蛋），其他的价值（例如，卵的大小和产卵时间）对提高后代存活率的作用仍然存在争议，并且可能因物种而异。 拟议的研究计划将探讨三种海洋十足类甲壳动物的母体效应。 选择这三个物种是因为它们的经济和生态重要性，但也因为它们的生活史和生态特征。 值得注意的是，雪蟹和美洲龙虾的幼虫扩散阶段分别长（几个月）和短（几周），而雕塑虾延长了母亲的照顾，孵化的幼虾留在雌性身上，直到少年阶段。 实验室和实地研究，构成本研究计划将更具体地集中在母子大小的关系，产卵和孵化的时间，因为它们涉及到母亲的大小和年龄，并在有趣的可能性，雕塑虾有营养蛋。 这项研究将评估较大的鸡蛋，早期与晚期孵化的好处，以及营养蛋对后代生长和生存的好处。 这项研究具有基本价值，有助于建立十足类甲壳动物之间的生殖策略的多样性，它也应用价值，提供信息，是重要的适当管理加拿大的一些最重要的渔业资源。

Mothers of many invertebrate species exhibit behaviours that are thought to improve the survival of their offspring and that are collectively called maternal effects. Mothers may make bigger eggs, invest more energy in individual eggs, oviposit at different times, incubate their eggs, protect the hatchlings from predators, or even feed the newly hatched offspring with trophic (nurse) eggs. While some of these behaviours are clearly adaptive (e.g., hatchling care and nurse eggs), the value of others (e.g., egg size and oviposition time) for increasing offspring survival is still open to debate and may differ among species. The proposed research program will explore maternal effects in three marine decapod crustaceans. The three species were selected for their economic and ecological importance, but also for their contrasting life-history and ecological features. Notably, the snow crab and American lobster have larval dispersal phases that are respectively long (months) and short (weeks), while the sculptured shrimp has extended maternal care with hatchlings remaining on females until the juvenile stage. The laboratory and field studies that constitute this research program will focus more specifically on the maternal-offspring size relationship, on the timing of oviposition and hatching as they relate to mother's size and age, and on the intriguing possibility that the sculptured shrimp has trophic eggs. The research will assess the benefits of larger eggs, of early versus late hatching, and of trophic eggs on the growth and survival of offspring. This research has basic value in contributing to establish the diversity of reproductive strategies among decapod crustaceans; it also applied value in providing information that is important for the proper management of some of Canada's most important fishery resources.