Research Symposium

BIO

I am a 4th year undergraduate student studying Biology, with a specialization in marine biology and population ecology. I am interested in marine megafauna population interactions and migration pattern response to climate change.

Heterandria formosa metabolic response to simulated food variability

Abstract

Environmental changes due to increased temperatures can cause an overall decrease in species diversity and changes food web interactions. This can lead to a change in food availability for many species. Least killifish are sensitive to changes in food availability. We ask if food variability causes changes in their oxygen consumption. The hypothesis is that a decrease in food availability will cause fish to lower their oxygen consumption. With respirometry chambers and Presens sensors, analysis of individual respiration was analyzed against food availability. A controlled environment with constant food is analyzed against a variable food environment using a generalized linear model. Climate change causes a decrease in biodiversity and species richness which impacts food web interactions in all ecosystems. This indirectly correlates to the decreased metabolic rate of fish in environments where food availability is low. Future studies will focus on temperature change directly and how an increased temperature will cause a decrease in metabolism and energy usage.

Keywords: climate change, respirometry, metabolic rate