Reproductive effort, fecundity and energy allocation in two species of the genus Perinereis (Polychaeta: Nereididae)

Abstract

Summary The reproductive effort in terms of fecundity and energy allocation was studied in two species of semelparous polychaetes belonging to the genus Perinereis, living in the same environment, with different reproductive modalities. There is a great individual variability both in terms of reproductive effort and fecundity. Fecundity varied from 4080 to 15000 oocytes in P. rullieri and from 7000 to 26000 in P. cultrifera; no linear relationship was found between oocyte number and total jaw length utilised as size index. The energy content of germinal and somatic tissues was determined by Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The reproductive effort was calculated as RE = EG/(EG + ES) where EG is the total energy in germinal tissues and ES is the total energy in somatic tissues. Reproductive effort is very high with mean values of 0.62 for P. rullieri and 0.79 for P. cultrifera. The different amounts of energy allocated in germinal tissues can be attributed to the different reproductive modalities—P. rullieri reproduces in the atokous phase whereas P. cultrifera has conserved epitoky in its life-cycle. The lack of correlation between reproductive effort and size index strongly suggests that reproductive allocation does not increase with age. In semelparous species the variability in fecundity and reproductive effort observed cannot be interpreted in terms of a trade-off between fecundity and survival as in iteroparous species. In fact, in semelparous an individual allocates all available resources to reproduction and then dies.