TEMPERATURE AND REPRODUCTIVE METABOLISM IN MACROBENTHIC POPULATIONS

Clarke (1987; Mar Ecol Frog Ser 38:89-99) analysed the effects of variation in maintenance metabolic costs with temperature on reproductive metabolism in poikilothermic animals. Based on model calculations, he concluded that annual mass-specific gonad production (GP) and the share of assimilated energy used for reproductive purposes (RE) are affected in opposite ways by temperature. In animals of similar size and ecology either GP will decrease with decreasing temperature ii RE remains constant or RE will increase with decreasing temperature if GP remains constant. Empirical data on productivity of marine benthic invertebrate populations suggest that the evolutionary adaptation of gonad metabolism tends toward changing GP and maintaining RE independent of temperature.