Rashonda Roach |
Name: Rashonda Roach
School: University of Mississippi Major: Nursing Mentor: Dr. Tamar Goulet Expected Graduation Date: May 2009 Organizations & Honors: Luckyday ScholarE-MAIL: rrroach1@olemiss.edu |
ABSTRACT
Feeding Response of Aiptasia Pallida After Induced Hyperthermic Bleaching
| Coral reefs are among the world's most fragile and endangered ecosystems. They are home to more than a quarter of all known marine fish species (Anitha et al, 2005). In this experiment, Aiptasia pallida, a sea anemone (Rudman, 2002), was used as the lab rat. This anemone was chosen because it is a cnidarian and symbiotic just like the coral. These were used to test whether bleached anemones eat more or less than unbleached anemones. The forty anemones used were divided into two groups. Half were bleached, and the remaining half were non-bleached. Anemones in the experiment were bleached by exposing them to an increase in temperature and depriving them of light. The anemones were monitored while being fed 2ml of fresh artemia for forty minutes in ten minute intervals. The hypothesis is that the bleached anemones will feed at the same rate as the non bleached anemones. The proposed null hypothesis was not supported. The bleached anemones ate and snared more than the non-bleached anemones. |