Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Ashley Derival and I am a 2nd-year undergrad. I was born in South Florida but was raised in Virginia for most of my life. I'm an avid and eager learner of a lot of things, but there is a special place in my heart for science, and would absolutely love to continue doing research.

Effect of Food Fluctuation on the Relationship Between Dry Body Weight and Length for Heterandria formosa

Abstract

Food fluctuation is a condition where the availability of food is irregular over time. Variable food can lead to a negative Jensen’s effect where low rates of food can affect the species negatively, but high rates of food have no significant positive effect. This experiment analyzes the effect of food fluctuation on the relationship between dry body weight and length for Heterandria formosa, a species of live-bearing fish. We gathered fish from variable-fed tanks (fluctuating system) and constant-fed tanks and measured each fish’s individual length with PictureMeasure. We then lyophilized the fish after freezing to collect the dry body weight. Findings show that energy reserves within the bodyweight do not deplete when these fish experience fluctuations in food.

Keywords: Fish, Fluctuation, Evolution, Length, Weight