Thermal tolerance of intertidal and subtidal adults and embryos of the marine gastropod Crepipatella peruviana

Abstract

The calyptraeid gastropod Crepipatella peruviana lives both intertidally and subtidally and broods its embryos within the mantle cavity for several weeks before releasing the offspring as veliger larvae. Adults and advanced embryos collected intertidally and subtidally at Puerto Montt, Chile, were exposed for up to 3 h to elevated temperatures between 29 and 32°C (control temperature was 20°C); we then quantified physiological shifts over the next 24 h and assessed mortality 24 and 48 h after the stress was ended. For both intertidal and subtidal adults, even a 1 h exposure to thermal stress as low as 30°C reduced rates of feeding and oxygen consumption dramatically; those rates did not reco..