Sexual development time
In both male and female strains, sexual development time was
significantly influenced by treatment (males: LRT, Gaussian GLMM,
λ2 = 257.19, p < 0.001; females: LRT,
Negative binomial GLMM with quadratic parametrization,
λ2 = 133.34, p < 0.001). Both male and
female polyps exposed to one week heat treatment showed delayed sexual
development, while those exposed to elevated winter temperatures showed
slightly, but significantly faster sexual development (Table 1., Fig.
2., 3.). Polyps in the WS-CW group delayed their reproduction most (Fig.
2A., 3A.), implying that a large sudden drop in temperature has negative
effects on sexual development. The results were corroborated by the
Kruskal-Wallis test and the pairwise Wilcoxon test as post-hocanalysis, with the exception of males in the CS-WW group, where
advancement of sexual development time was only marginally significant
(p = 0.081).