Seasonal Respiration of Transennella tantilla Gould

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Abstract
SYNOPSIS. A population of Transennella tantilla living on an intertidal sandflat became cold-adapted in late autumn. The nature of the adaptation, corresponding with Prosser's pattern IIIA, consists of a clockwise rotation of the respiratory rate-t temperature line and a rarely found intersection with the warm-adapted ratetemperature line within the normal range of habitat temperature. The incomplete temperature-compensation in metabolism puts the species in type 3 of Precht's classification. The seasonal change in the temperature-coefficient of respiration is believed to be induced in autumn andwinter by the characteristic temperature-regime of the tideflat, and in late spring and summer, as the result of the population's growth cycle. This study raises the need for thoroughness in measuring seasonal respiration as a function of size and temperature when investigating the energy flow of populations suspected of seasonal temperature-compensation. A plea is made for physiologists to present their data on respiration in a form more useful to ecologists working on the problems of energetics of a community.

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