Éditeur(s) : Gauthier-Villars
Résumé : Echinoderms show phenotypic plasticity in which variation in environmental conditions elicit graded reaction norms of morphological change. With the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus under laboratory conditions, decreases in available food caused decreases in dry weights of the gonad and gut coupled with increases in the mass of Aristotle's lantern and length of the demi-pyramids. Spine clipping caused increased spine growth as well as decreases in the gut and gonad masses. Survival rate remained unchanged over a range of feeding and clipping treatments. In the field, at Sunset Bay, Oregon, well-fed sea urchins, with relatively small demi-pyramids, showed survival rates similar to poorly fed sea urchins that had large demi-pyramids. The wide range of morphological change, coupled with the narrow range of-change in survival, suggests that morphological plasticity buffers survival and hence would increase fitness. Phenotypic plasticity shown by other sea urchins includes changes in the relative sizes of Aristotle's lantern in Diadema antillarum and Echinometra mathaei and seasonal variation in the density of pedicellariae in Echinus esculentus. Variation in body size of echinoids and asteroids in different habitats and variation in number of arms in crinoids also may be examples of adaptive plasticity. Seasonal atrophy of internal organs in the sea cucumber Parastichopus californicus has been interpreted as an adaptive response to food limitation but, given the nature of responses in other echinoderms, such an interpretation seems unlikely and the significance of seasonal atrophy of organs in holothurians remains unknown.
Oceanologica Acta (0399-1784) (Gauthier-Villars), 1996 , Vol. 19 , N. 3-4 , P. 347-355

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http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00094/20492/18187.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00094/20492/