The maternal environment may influence the quantity and quality of resources invested in offspring (per-offspring provisioning) and this trait, in turn, affects larval fitness and may carry-over into early juvenile life. Here, per-offspring investment was measured across three consecutive breeding seasons for the caridean shrimp, Palaemon varians . Egg and hatchling larval dry weight as well as hatchling larval biochemical composition were measured. Results indicate that egg volume is positively correlated with dry weight, but egg volume as a proxy for dry weight should be used with caution. Correlations were identified between per-offspring investment and average breeding season temperature, but the period over which temperature was averaged was important to whether these correlations were positive or negative, highlighting the complexity of identifying environmental influence on phenotypic traits. The most important factor determining offspring size and per-offspring investment was maternal size, which may be influenced by the environment as carapace length varied significantly between breeding seasons. These data demonstrate variation in egg and larval composition, related to maternal size, which will affect early life traits and survivorship for P. varians .

中文翻译：

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可变环境中的可变虾：Palaemon varians 的繁殖投资

母体环境可能会影响投资于后代的资源的数量和质量（每个后代的供应），而这种特性反过来会影响幼虫的健康状况，并可能延续到幼年的早期生活。在这里，在连续三个繁殖季节测量了对虾，Palaemon varians 的每个后代的投资。测量了卵和孵化幼虫的干重以及孵化幼虫的生化成分。结果表明鸡蛋体积与干重呈正相关，但应谨慎使用鸡蛋体积作为干重的代理。确定了每个后代的投资与平均繁殖季节温度之间的相关性，但平均温度的时期对于这些相关性是正还是负很重要，强调识别环境对表型性状影响的复杂性。决定后代大小和每个后代投资的最重要因素是母体大小，这可能受环境影响，因为繁殖季节之间的背甲长度差异很大。这些数据表明，卵和幼虫组成的变化与母体大小有关，这将影响 P. varians 的早期生活特征和存活率。