Aquatic Toxicology 82 (2007) 242–250 The effect of maternal exposure to contaminated sediment on the growth and condition of larval Fundulus heteroclitus Janet A. Nye a,∗ , Dawn D. Davis b , Thomas J. Miller a a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, PO Box 38, Solomons, MD 20688, United States b Northeast Fisheries Science Center, James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory, 74 Magruder Road, Sandy Hook Highlands, NJ 07732, United States Received 12 November 2006; received in revised form 13 February 2007; accepted 18 February 2007 Abstract We employed a factorial laboratory experiment to determine the single and combined effect of maternal and larval exposure to contaminated sediment from Elizabeth River, Virginia, a site contaminated with high concentrations of multiple pollutants. Females were exposed to either reference or contaminated sediment and the larvae from both groups of mothers were in turn transferred to either reference or contaminated sediment. We found a strong maternal inﬂuence on yolk area, length and RNA:DNA ratio at hatch. Further, the maternal exposure signiﬁcantly inﬂuenced growth rate and RNA:DNA ratios of larvae 14 days after hatch and was a more important factor in determining these endpoints than larval exposure. We found that after 14 days larvae were larger and had higher survivorship when the maternal and larval exposures were the same. There also was no statistical difference with respect to growth and condition between larvae that had hatched from exposed mothers and remained in contaminated water and larvae that had hatched from reference mothers and were placed in either reference or contaminated sediment. However, larvae that hatched from exposed mothers and then were switched to reference sediment had signiﬁcantly lower growth, lower RNA:DNA ratios, and were smaller despite being large at hatch size, indicating that there are ﬁtness trade-offs in exchange for apparent resistance to contaminants which are provided by the mother. Maternal effects add complexity to ecotoxicological research and should be incorporated into studies to predict population level responses more realistically. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Fish early life history; Maternal effects; Contaminants; PAH; RNA:DNA ratios; Egg volume; Growth 1. Introduction Maternal effects are those phenotypic traits observed in off- spring that are independent of offspring genotype, but a direct result of maternal phenotype (Bernardo, 1996a). The correla- tions between phenotypic traits in the mother and offspring have been studied extensively in ecology and much of the maternal effects literature has focused on the inﬂuence of maternal phe- notype on egg and offspring size because of the importance of size on survival in early life history (Bernardo, 1996b). For example, many studies have documented a positive relation- ship between female size and egg size in ﬁsh (Hislop, 1988; ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 410 326 7373; fax: +1 410 326 7318. E-mail addresses: nye@cbl.umces.edu (J.A. Nye), Dawn.Davis@noaa.gov (D.D. Davis), miller@cbl.umces.edu (T.J. Miller). Chambers and Leggett, 1996; Chambers and Waiwood, 1996; Chambers, 1997). Some studies have linked maternal size or age not only with egg size and/or quality, but also with the subse- quent size, growth, and survival of offspring (e.g., Benoit and Pepin, 1999; Heyer et al., 2001; Berkeley et al., 2004). These studies support the hypothesis that large, old females in better nutritional condition produce larvae in better condition which in turn may have higher survivorship and may result in higher recruitment to the population (Solemdal, 1997; Secor, 2000). Environmental conditions and diet inﬂuence maternal nutri- tional condition and health, hereafter termed condition (Reznick, 1991; Yaragina and Marshall, 2000). In toxicology studies for example, ﬁsh exposed to sublethal levels of contaminants often have reduced growth and condition (Weis and Kahn, 1991; Ferraro et al., 2001; Rowe, 2003). It is logical to hypothesize that the offspring of females exposed to contaminants would be smaller and in poorer condition because maternal condition is 0166-445X/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aquatox.2007.02.011