Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

A Noninvasive Method For In situ Determination of Mating Success in Female American Lobsters (Homarus americanus)
Published on: February 7, 2014
How severe is sperm limitation in natural populations of marine free-spawners?
Abstract:
Successful fertilization in marine organisms that release sperm into seawater is potentially limited by the rapid dilution of gametes; cases of severe sperm limitation have been demonstrated in nature. However, recent surveys of naturally spawning populations indicate fairly high fertilization levels in many taxa. The extreme selection exerted by sperm limitation has resulted in numerous adaptations to reduce sperm limitation and enhance fertilization. Thus, most taxa show indications of the evolutionary consequences of sperm limitation even when population level, ecological effects are minimal.
Related Concept Videos
Spermatogenesis
Understanding Species and Reproductive Barriers
Speciation Rates
Conservation of Small Populations
Genetics of Speciation
Testing a Claim about Mean: Known Population SD
Estimating a population mean requires the samples to be distributed normally. The data should be collected from the randomly selected samples having no sampling bias. The sample size needed to be higher than 30, and most importantly, the population standard deviation should be already known.
In most realistic situations, the population standard deviation is often unknown, but in rare circumstances, when it...

