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1. Changes in Larval Oyster Swimming Behavior with Salinity and Larval Age

   https://doi.org/10.1086/725418  

   Manuel, Emily C.; Caracappa, Joseph; Munroe, Daphne (April 2023, The Biological Bulletin)

   Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are sessile, relying on a larval phase to disperse in estuaries. Oyster larval swimming behavior can alter dispersal trajectories and patterns of population connectivity. Experiments were conducted to test how both (1) acclimation time to new environmental conditions and (2) larval swimming behavior change with salinity and larval age. Acclimation time to changes in salinity was longest in lower salinity (6 ppt) and decreased with age. To test changes in behavior with salinity, larvae were placed into four salinities (6, 10, 16, and 22 ppt) where swimming was recorded. To test changes in behavior with age, larvae aged 6, 12, and 15 days were recorded. In both experiments, swimming paths were mapped in two dimensions, behavior of each path was categorized, and speed, direction, and acceleration were calculated. The frequency of upward, neutral, and downward swimming behaviors did not differ across salinity treatments but did vary with age, whereas the frequency of behavior types varied with both salinity and ontogeny. As an example, diving was observed more frequently in low salinity, and more downward helices were observed in moderate salinity, while younger larvae swam upward with more frequency than older larvae. Surprisingly, diving was observed in 10%–15% of all larvae across all ages. Given the consequence of larval behavior to marine invertebrate dispersal, changes in swimming over larval age and in response to environmental changes have important implications to marine population stability and structure. 

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2. A Neuromechanical Model of Larval Chemotaxis

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icy094  

   Loveless, Jane; Webb, Barbara (October 2018, Integrative and Comparative Biology)
3. Larval Thymectomy of Xenopus laevis

   https://doi.org/10.1101/pdb.prot099192  

   Mashoof, Sara; Breaux, Breanna; Criscitiello, Michael F. (July 2018, Cold Spring Harbor Protocols)

   In jawed vertebrates from sharks to mammals, the thymus is the primary (or central) lymphoid tissue where T cells develop and mature. The particular stromal cell types, cytokine environment, and tissue organization in the thymus are essential for V(D)J recombination, positive selection for major histocompatibility complex recognition, and negative selection against self-peptide recognition of most αβ T cells. The thymectomy operation on Xenopus tadpole larva described here creates a T-cell–deficient model suitable for many immunology studies. 

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4. Larval thermal characteristics of multiple ixodid ticks

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2021.110939  

   Fieler, Alicia M.; Rosendale, Andrew J.; Farrow, David W.; Dunlevy, Megan D.; Davies, Benjamin; Oyen, Kennan; Xiao, Yanyu; Benoit, Joshua B. (July 2021, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology)

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5. Thermal tolerance of larval Antarctic cryonotothenioid fishes

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-024-03262-9  

   Corso, Andrew_D; Mowatt-Larssen, Tor; Brill, Richard_W; Steinberg, Deborah_K; Hilton, Eric_J (June 2024, Polar Biology)

   Abstract Cryonotothenioids constitute a subgroup of notothenioid fishes endemic to the Southern Ocean that are specialized to exist in a narrow range of near-freezing temperatures. Due to the challenges of reliably collecting and maintaining larval cryonotothenioids in good condition, most thermal tolerance studies have been limited to adult and juvenile stages. With increasing environmental pressures from climate change in Antarctic ecosystems, it is important to better understand the impacts of a warming environment on larval stages as well. In this study, we determine the critical thermal maxima (CTmax) of cryonotothenioid larvae collected in pelagic net tows during three research cruises near the western Antarctic Peninsula. We sampled larvae of seven species representing three cryonotothenioid families—Nototheniidae, Channichthyidae, and Artedidraconidae. For channichthyid and nototheniid species, CTmax values ranged from 8.6 to 14.9 °C and were positively correlated with body length, suggesting that younger, less motile larvae may be especially susceptible to rapid warming events such as marine heatwaves. To our knowledge, this is the first published test of acute thermal tolerance for any artedidraconid, with CTmax ranging from 13.2 to 17.8 °C, which did not correlate with body length. Of the two artedidraconid species we collected,Neodraco skottsbergishowed remarkable tolerance to warming and was the only species to resume normal swimming following trials. We offer two hypotheses as to whyN. skottsbergihas such an elevated thermal tolerance: (1) their unique green coloration serves as camouflage within near-surface phytoplankton blooms, suggesting they occupy an especially warm near-surface niche, and (2) recent insights into their evolutionary history suggest that they are derived from taxa that may have occupied warm tide-pool habitats. Collectively, these results establishN. skottsbergiand larval channichthyids as groups of interest for future physiological studies to gain further insights into the vulnerability of cryonotothenioids to a warming ocean. 

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