Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 02/27/2012 - 08:45
Forums
Seafloor Organisms and Changing Ocean Conditions in Antarctic

Hi Nell,

It was great to catch up on your journals today - thanks for the pictures of the different species of seals.

I was wondering about the effects of the change in pressure for the snails and limpets - how deep is the water where they were collected? and then Do they behave/react differently in the shallower water of their lab environment? How do the scientists account for this change in pressure?

It's always hard to tell the sizes of things...the forceps helped! are the snails approximately quarter-sized and the limpets about 2" long? Are these typical adult animals?

Are the sea starts being studied or are they just in the lab because they're fun to watch? Will they be able to return the sea stars to the ocean?

Thanks.

Tami

Tue, 02/28/2012 - 02:52

Nell Herrmann

Hi Tami!Glad you enjoyed the pictures. The limpets can be collected just off shore and the snails were collected at around 60 feet. I asked one of the scientists if pressure changes would affect the animals and she said that because of the way they exchange gas in the water, she didn't think so.
The snails are a bit smaller than a dime and the limpets vary in size but on average are about 1.5 inches long. Yep, they are typical adults.
The sea stars have been returned to the ocean. They were in the lab because a panel from the National Science Foundation was here over the weekend to observe the facilities and get input from scientists and support staff about Palmer Station. The aquarium was set up for the panel to see some of the species that are typical to the are. The neat thing was, Dr. McClintock observed the reaction of the snails (Margarella antarctica) to the sea stars in the tank. This gave him and Julie the idea for a future study I mentioned in my journal involving behavior and ocean acidification. I think one of my favorite things about science is that there are always unanswered questions and things to explore!
Have a good day! I don't know if you've already looked at my 2-27 journal or not, but I've added a video of fur seals to it that's pretty neat...
-Nell