The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the certification and auditing services of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The traditional approach to auditing—on-site visits—has been significantly curtailed, and it is unclear when, and under what conditions, it might resume in full. The purpose of this paper is to study the initial responses to COVID-19 of leading VSS—a group of 21 standards that are members of ISEAL, a global membership organization for VSS. This is a qualitative study, and data are collected from publicly-available sources (i.e., official announcements, policy amendments, derogations) in order to inductively analyze how individual VSS have adjusted their certification services in response to travel bans and lockdowns. The emphasis of the analysis was understanding the role of technologies in the VSS responses to the COVID-19 crisis. The findings demonstrate significant uptake of remote auditing and information and communications technology (ICT), even though that uptake is constrained by limiting conditions and it is not currently expected by VSS to extend beyond the crisis. Lessons learned from the crisis are discussed, and the potential for remote auditing during this period to encourage the adoption of more advanced technologies (such as artificial intelligence and satellite monitoring) in certification services is explored. A set of research questions to guide future work grounded in the analysis is also provided.

Ovigerous females of Cancer setosus are present year-round throughout most of its wide range along the Peruvian/Chilean Pacific coast (2°S-46°S). However, their number of egg-masses produced per year remains speculative and as such has neither been considered in latitudinal comparisons of reproduction, nor for its fisheries management. In order to reveal the effect of temperature on egg-mass production and eggdevelopment, female C. setosus were held in through-flow aquaria under natural seasonal temperature conditions (16-23°C) in Antofagasta (23°S), Northern Chile (05/2005-03/2006; 10 months), and at three constant temperatures (12, 16, 19°C) in Puerto Montt (41°S), Central Southern Chile (09/2006-02/2007; 5 months). Female crabs uniformly produced up to 3 viable egg-masses within 4 1/2 months in Antofagasta and in Puerto Montt (at 19°C). The second egg-mass was observed 62.5 days (± 7.6; N = 7) after the oviposition of the first clutch and a third egg-mass followed 73.5 days (± 12.5; N = 11) later in Antofagasta (at 16-23°C). Comparably, a second oviposition took place 64.4 days (± 9.8, N = 5) after the first clutch and a third, 67.0 days (± 2.8, N = 2), thereafter, at 19°C in Puerto Montt. At the two lower temperatures (16 and 12°C) in Puerto Montt a second egg-mass was extruded after 82.8 days (± 28.9; N = 4) and 137 days (N = 1), respectively. The duration of eggdevelopment from oviposition until larval hatching decreased from 65 days at 12.5°C to 22.7 days at the observed upper temperature threshold of 22°C. Based on the derived relationship between temperature and the duration of egg-development (y = 239.3175e − 0.107x ; N = 21, r 2 = 0.83) and data on monthly percentages of ovigerous females from field studies, the annual number of egg-masses of C. setosus was calculated. This analysis revealed an annual output of about one egg-mass close to the species northern and southern distributional limits in Casma (9°S) and Ancud (43°S), respectively, while at Coquimbo (29°S) about two and in Concepción (36°S) more than 3 egg-masses are produced per year.

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Previous study on Cancer setosus Molina, 1782 showed that latitudinal changes in temperature control the number of annual egg masses. This study focused on the effects of preoviposition temperature and female size on egg traits in C. setosus from northern (Antofagasta, 23°S) and central-southern (Puerto Montt, 41°S) Chile. Blastula eggs produced in nature ranged in dry mass (DM) from 9.1 to 15.1 µg, in carbon (C) from 4.8 to 8.4 µg, in nitrogen (N) from 1.0 to 1.6 µg, in C:N ratio between 4.7 and 5.4, and in volume (V) between 152 and 276 mm 3 × 10 -4 per female. Blastula eggs from females caught early in the reproductive season in Puerto Montt (September 2006) were significantly higher in DM, C, N, and V than those of females caught 2 mo later, reflecting a seasonal increase in water temperature. In Puerto Montt 'early' and 'late' season blastula eggs were higher in DM, C, N, and V than eggs from Antofagasta by about 32 and 20%, respectively. Subsequent egg masses produced in captivity in Puerto Montt followed this pattern of smaller eggs with lower DM, C, and N content at higher pre-oviposition temperatures. In Antofagasta no significant difference in DM, C, N, and V between eggs produced in nature and subsequent eggs produced in captivity was found and all egg traits were significantly positively affected by maternal size. Reproductive plasticity in C. setosus helps to explain the species wide latitudinal distribution range.KEY WORDS: Crustacea · Cancridae · Chile · Latitudinal cline · Reproductive plasticity 377: 193-202, 2009 Within the Crustacea, seasonal (Boddeke 1982, Amsler & George 1984, Sheader 1996, Paschke 1998), inter-annual (Kattner et al. 1994) and latitudinal (Crisp 1959, Clarke et al. 1991, Wehrtmann & Kattner 1998, Lardies & Castilla 2001, Lardies & Wehrtmann 2001, Brante et al. 2003 intraspecific differences in egg traits have been reported. Furthermore, in Crustacea with consecutive ovipositions, egg quality may vary with spawning order, a feature of considerable importance in shrimp aquaculture (e.g. Arcos et al. 2003, Racotta et al. 2003. Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog SerHowever, unless common environment experiments are conducted, it remains speculative if latitudinal differences in reproductive traits are based on genetic differences or represent adaptive phenotypic responses to environmental heterogeneity (e.g. temperature) (see Kokita 2003).In the brachyuran crab Cancer setosus Molina, 1782, which is distributed over more than 40°of latitude along the South American Pacific coast (2°S, 079°W to 46°S, 075°W; Fig. 1) (Rathbun 1930), fecundity per egg mass, egg dry mass, and egg volume increases with increasing latitude (Brante et al. 2003(Brante et al. , 2004. At its southern range C. setosus incubates one annual egg mass throughout the austral winter until the time of larvae hatching in spring. In central-and northern Chile, reproduction is not restricted to a certain season leading to an annual output of ab...

In many marine invertebrates, a latitudinal cline in egg size is considered an adaptive response to a decrease in temperature, and enhances the energetic fitness of their larvae at hatching. However, the amount of energy carried over from the egg to the larval stage depends on the metabolic efficiency of egg development. In the present study, eggs of the brachyuran crab Cancer setosus were sampled for their dry mass (DM), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and fatty acid (FA) content throughout development from blastula stage until hatching of zoea 1-larvae at Antofagasta (23°S) and Puerto Montt 41°S (Chile) under different temperature treatments (12, 16 and 19°C). Hatching zoea 1 larvae contained 60 ± 3% of the initial blastula egg C content, regardless of site or temperature. However, the ontogenetic decrease in egg C content was to a significantly higher extend based on the utilization of energy-rich FA at 12°C (− 1.16 µg/egg) compared to the 19°C treatments in Antofagasta and Puerto Montt (− 0.63 to − 0.73 µg FA per egg). At 19°C egg-metabolism was based to a substantial extend on protein, which allowed for the saving of energy-richer lipids. We conclude that the production of larger eggs with high FA content appears to be adaptive not only to fuel the larval development, but is also a response to the prolonged egg developmental times at lower temperatures.