Effects of temperature on the feeding and growth of the larvae of the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi

gambill, maria; møller, lene friis; peck, myron a;

Carbon-specific prey clearance and ingestion rates of 1.5-mm tentaculate larvae of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi increased linearly between 6 and 258C but declined between 25 and 308C. Both absolute (length) and carbon-specific growth rate increased linearly with increasing temperature. The latter was 0.87 d21 at 258C. Extremely low or negative growth rates observed at 6 and 308C help define the thermal limits to population growth of this successful biological invader.