The coming years will apparently bring increases in seawater temperatures, salinity fluctuation, and ocean acidity, along with increasing pollution levels and increasing incidences of coastal hypoxic events. We can also expect to see shifting patterns of phytoplankton abundance and nutritional quality. Many such stresses experienced early in development—even among brooded embryos—have been found to influence growth rates, survival, and other fitness characteristics following metamorphosis, sometimes for months, both in laboratory studies and in those in which juveniles were transplanted to the field. The effects are usually negative, but have been seemingly positive in a few studies. Vulnerability can vary among species, and even among the offspring from different parents. The mechanisms through which such “latent effects” are mediated are unclear: energy-balance issues and epigenetic factors—in which gene expression patterns are altered without any changes in DNA sequences—seem to be involved.