3.2.3 LARVAL ASSAYS
E. chloroticus larvae were raised for 28 d in a standing-renewal system composed of 2 L glass jars placed in a flowing seawater bath to maintain a near constant temperature. Water temperature was 16° C ±1 throughout the whole experiment and pH was measured in each jar at one and three week post-fertilisation. Jars were gently stirred by a system of motorised paddles as described in Strathmann (1987), to provide adequate oxygenation. Embryos were placed in their culture jar within 1 h post-fertilisation at a density of 1 embryo/ml. All glassware was washed with hot water, soaked in 10% hydrochloric acid for a minimum of 4 h, rinsed and soaked in distilled water for 12 h and rinsed in FSW before use. FSW in jars was renewed three times per week by inverse siphoning. From 4 d post-fertilisation, larvae were fed following each water change with Dunaliella tertiolecta at a concentration of 8000 cells/ml of culture. Dunaliella stocks were rinsed thoroughly by three successive centrifugations (1201 g for 5 min) and resuspensions in clean FSW before being fed to the larvae, to remove traces of algal culture medium that was rich in essential metals.
All jars were sampled at 4 d and 11 d post-fertilisation; jars in the Early timing group were sampled at 25 d, and jars in the Late timing group at 13 d and 27 d postfertilisation. During sampling, the water level in each jar was lowered to 750 ml to increase larval density and 3 x 15 ml aliquots were taken per jar. Jars were randomly numbered and all measurements were done blind with regard to the treatment classification. Number of live larvae was measured in each aliquot using a dissecting microscope (40x magnification). Each live larva was assigned to one of eight developmental categories (Table 3.2). The first ten normal larvae encountered were preserved in 40% ethanol to be photographed under a compound microscope (50x magnification). When two developmental stages were considered normal (e.g. at 25 d post-fertilisation both 6-armed plutei and 8-armed plutei were rated as normal), only larvae belonging to the most advanced developmental stage (e.g. 8-armed plutei at 25 d) were taken for morphometric measurements. Measurements of larval body and arm lengths (average of R and L arms where possible; Table 3.2) as well as presence and size of the rudiment in the late larval stage were done using the software ImageJ.