Comparative impacts of temperature on egg ecology of pelagic fish species in the north Atlantic

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The early life history stages of fish are considered the most vulnerable and can be strongly affected by environmental variability, leading to inter-annual population fluctuations. Temperature has a major role on development and mortality rates, with consequences for recruitment and overall stock productivity. We collated development and survival data from publications on laboratory egg incubation experiments to investigate and compare the development, daily mortality and survival of fish eggs from pelagic species in the north Atlantic, and to investigate whether trade-offs exist between these traits at the population and species level and between demersal and pelagic eggs. The functional response of each trait to a temperature increase was generally similar regardless of species. However, when comparing the magnitude of response, different adaptations were found among species/populations and egg type. At the egg type level, a trade-off probably exists between fast development and high mortality or slow development and low mortality, resulting in similar survival percentages. These results quantify physiological effects of temperature on the eggs. Future studies which combine these results with adult traits (e. g., fecundity) can be used to investigate the potential for different pelagic species to maintain or establish populations in the future warmer north Atlantic.