Thermal tolerance by embryos and larvae of the surf clam Spisula solidissima

Thermal tolerance was tested in three developmental stages of the surf clam Spisula solidissima: cleavage stages, trochophore , and straight hinge larvae. Experiments were designed to simulate larval entrainment in the cooling system of a power plant. Eleven different temperatures were investigated from 20.2 to 43 degrees C. Exposure times varied from 1 min to 6 hr and following each of the (88) different exposures, larvae were returned to the incubation temperature for a further period of development which facilitated differentiation of dead and live animals. Pooled mortality data from triplicate experiments (for each larval state) were subjected to a stepwise regression analysis (percentage mortality on temperature and time). Equations were derived from the regression program comprising first-, second-, and third-order terms for temperature and time, and these were used to generate response surfaces relating mortality to temperature-time exposure. As with earlier work on Mulinia , the term (temperature) provides the best single predictor of larval mortality. Spisula is the only fully marine bivalve species so far subjected to this type of thermal tolerance test and is clearly the most temperature sensitive of all species investigated to date.