Most marine ectotherms require the successful completion of a biphasic larval stage to recruit into adult populations. Recruitment of larvae into benthic habitats largely depends on biological interactions and favourable environmental conditions such as the inescapable diurnal thermal and tidal exposures. Hence, assessing how different taxa metabolically respond to variations in temperature is imperative to understand the community and ecosystem dynamics at both local and global scales. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of acute temperature variation on the physiology of stage-specific brachyuran larvae collected from different microhabitats at two mangrove forests in South Africa. Results indicate that the conditions within microhabitats, which larvae experience, likely influence their physiology, based on respirometry, to short-term acute temperature exposures. Furthermore, the larval thermal optimum shifted ontogenetically to become increasingly eurythermic as individuals developed from stage I zoea through to megalopa. Mangrove crab larvae in their early stages are hence increasingly vulnerable to acute temperature exposures, which could be particularly harmful to the persistence of populations if thermally stressful events increase in magnitude and frequency.

中文翻译：

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红树林微生境和幼虫个体发育的精细条件有助于早期短足动物（甲壳动物：十足目）的热生理

大多数海洋变温动物需要成功完成双相幼虫阶段才能招募到成年种群。将幼虫招募到底栖栖息地很大程度上取决于生物相互作用和有利的环境条件，例如不可避免的昼夜热和潮汐暴露。因此，评估不同类群对温度变化的代谢反应对于了解当地和全球范围内的群落和生态系统动态至关重要。本研究旨在调查急性温度变化对从南非两片红树林的不同微生境中采集的特定阶段短臂猿幼虫生理的影响。结果表明，根据呼吸测量，幼虫所经历的微生境中的条件可能会影响它们的生理机能，短期急性温度暴露。此外，随着个体从 I 期 zoea 发展到巨型动物，幼虫的热最佳状态在个体发育上转变为越来越温热。因此，处于早期阶段的红树林蟹幼虫越来越容易受到急性温度暴露的影响，如果热应激事件的幅度和频率增加，这可能对种群的持续存在特别有害。