Seasonal temperature effects and predicting development rates of marine copepod eggs1

Egg development rates of the marine copepod Acartia clausi are affected by the temperature history of the female parent. The eggs from animals collected during winter (8–10°C) have significantly faster development rates under summer conditions (15–20°C) than those collected during summer (18–20°C). Adaptation of winter acclimated animals to summer conditions is a slow process requiring longer than one generation at 20°C. Others have suggested that the egg development rates of different species of marine copepods from the arctic to the tropics are related to temperature by different functions: when the effects of metabolic depression at the low and high limits of a copepod’s temperature range are considered, the data support the alternative proposal that the relative rates of egg development for nine species of arctic‐temperate marine copepods follow a common temperature function.