The potential effect of hydrocarbon contamination on the hatching success of benthic resting eggs of Acartia pacifica in Xiamen Bay was investigated experimentally. The number of nauplii emerging from the sediment samples decreased with increasing Fuel Oil #0 concentration. The estimated rate of mortality increased markedly with the increase of Fuel Oil #0 concentration. Successive fuel Oil #0 concentrations from 50 mg/kg to 5000 mg/kg reduced the number of hatched nauplii by 3.8% -100%. The mortality of A. pacifica resting eggs due to Fuel Oil #0 contamination did not significantly increase as time progressed at each concentration level. The LC50 values of resting eggs, changing from 237.12 to 279.59 mg/kg, remained at an almost stable level in two months. The number of A. pacifica nauplii that hatched from the sediment at 10℃ was higher than those from the sediment at 30℃, which indicates that the toxicity of Fuel Oil #0 on A. pacifica resting eggs increases with increasing temperature.
