Antarctic Asteroid Odontaster validus: Constancy of Reproductive Periodicities

The fact that samples of Odontaster validus from the Balleny Islands (67 degrees S) and Robertson Bay (71 degrees S) closely resembled reproductively samples taken from McMurdo Sound (77 degrees S) indicates reproductive synchrony in this species over much or all of their circumcontinental antarctic distribution. This synchrony suggests that the reproductive periodicities of O. validus are both adapted to and synchronized by the summer period of phytoproduction and that neither light nor temperature changes have any direct synchronizing role.