Christofer Troedsson, Jean-Marie Bouquet, Dag L. Aksnes and Eric M. Thompson

Mar Ecol Prog Ser Vol. 243: 83–91, 2002 Published November 13

Resource allocation between somatic growth and reproductive output in the pelagic chordate Oikopleura dioica allows opportunistic response to nutritional variation.

Defines four phases of development that transition with inflating the first house, growing the reproductive organ, and spawning. In phase 3, an increasing number of eggs is produced when available food increases, but the length of the phase and the size of the eggs stays comparable between standard and 1/6 food amounts. Generation time was 132 ± 13 h (5.5 d) at 20 °C and 159 ± 20 h (6.9 d) at 15 °C.