DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7d7wm37v4
title: Mendt & Gosselin 2021 Depleted energy reserves and early benthic phase mortality

description: Insufficient energy reserves are widely considered to be a primary factor
 contributing to high rates of early benthic phase mortality among benthic
 marine invertebrates, but this hypothesis has been based mostly on
 indirect, observational evidence, and remains largely untested. We
 therefore examined the role of initial energy reserves in regulating
 survivorship and growth during the early benthic phase. Recently settled
 or hatched individuals of six invertebrate species were collected from
 natural populations, maintained without food, and their survivorship was
 monitored. Contrary to expectations, starved individuals of all six
 species had high survivorship through the critical first 10 d of the early
 benthic phase, with half of the species experiencing &lt;2% mortality,
 and the remaining three species experiencing only 6 – 12% mortality. For
 five of the six species, 50% mortality was reached only after ≥50 d of
 starvation. Additionally, no difference in short-term survivorship was
 detected among starved individuals of three different size classes (a
 proxy for energy reserves) of N. ostrina hatchlings. Finally, the effect
 of different durations of delayed feeding (0 – 50 d) on recovery (i.e.
 growth and survivorship) once food was made available revealed that
 duration of starvation prior to feeding can nevertheless have significant
 longer-term impacts on the proportion of individuals that survive or their
 ability to grow. Together, these findings suggest that depleted energy
 reserves are not a primary cause of high mortality at the start of the
 early benthic phase, as had previously been hypothesized. Levels of energy
 reserves did influence growth, however, suggesting a possible indirect
 influence on performance by leaving individuals vulnerable for longer
 periods.
description: Full listing of methodology related to the data in this file is
 given in the article published in Ecology and Evolution.<br> This
 study examined the role of initial energy reserves on early benthic phase
 (EBP) survivorship in six species of benthic intertidal invertebrates on
 the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada: the barnacles Balanus glandula
 Darwin 1854 and Chthamalus dalli Pilsbry 1916, the mussel Mytilus
 trossulus Gould 1850, the snails Nucella ostrina Gould 1852 and Nucella
 lamellosa Gmelin 1791, and the crabs Petrolisthes cinctipes Randall 1840
 and P. eriomerus Stimpson 1871. EBP individuals of the two Petrolisthes
 species could not be readily distinguished, so these were grouped together
 and designated as Petrolisthes spp. Animals were collected from rocky
 intertidal sites located in Barkley Sound. All experiments were conducted
 at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre the west coast of Vancouver Island
 from May to September of 2019. To experimentally control the energy
 reserves of EBP individuals, most experiments in this study involved
 rearing EBP individuals without food. In addition, body mass was also used
 as a proxy for energy reserves in one experiment to determine its
 influence on survivorship.