![]() ![]() ![]() glandula collected from both low and high intertidal positions. To this end, we assessed how aerial temperature stress affected oxygen consumption rates (MO 2), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and time to mortality in B. glandula from different vertical heights in the intertidal zone. In the second chapter of my thesis, we went on to investigate how the response to thermal stress might differ between populations of B. These data suggest that there must be multiple, interacting stressors – including tidal position - that influence the anaerobic metabolic capacity of B. Unfortunately, neither temperature nor emersion stress – the two variables we examined – had any significant an effect on LDH activity in B. In response to these variable patterns, we attempted to identify what environmental parameters, other than predation, might be responsible for plasticity in LDH activity. While we did observe variation in LDH activity over time and between sites, we did not consistently observe the same trend in LDH activity whereby low intertidal barnacles had the highest activity. We did this at the original location in San Luis Obispo Bay, CA as well as at three novel field sites and across seasons and years. ![]() glandula, we attempted to replicate the previous finding that LDH activity was highest in low intertidal populations of B. After failing to find an effect of predators on LDH activity in B. glandula was likewise not affected by predator exposures (48h) carried out in the lab. We were therefore not surprised to find that LDH activity in B. This time frame for shell closure is unlikely to result in internal hypoxia or enhance capacity for anaerobic metabolism. glandula was induced by predator exposure ( Acanthinucella spirata) for less than 24h. glandula and gastropod whelk predators in the low intertidal compared to the high intertidal, but follow-up studies in the lab revealed that opercular closure in B. We found that, in general, there were higher densities of B. Further, we explore the temporal and spatial fidelity of certain tidal-height driven trends in lactate dehydrogenase activity previously observed in our lab (i.e., higher LDH activity in low intertidal barnacles Horn et al., 2021), and attempt to identify environmental variables that drive plasticity in LDH activity. glandula anchored in the low intertidal have a greater capacity for anaerobic metabolism than conspecifics in the high intertidal, and that this is due to increased predation pressure during submersion. In the first chapter of my thesis, we investigate the hypothesis that B. The common acorn barnacle Balanus glandula represents an ideal model organism in which to investigate the possibility of tidal height-dependent physiological differences, owing to their wide distribution in the intertidal zone and their eurytolerant nature. As such, we predicted that there may be pronounced differences in the metabolic and stress physiology of conspecific sessile invertebrates occupying at different relative tidal heights. Many of the environmental stressors that vary across the intertidal (e.g., temperature, oxygen, food availability, predation pressure) are strong drivers of metabolic rate in ectotherms. Intertidal habitats are characterized by dynamic, tidally-driven fluctuations in abiotic and biotic factors. ![]()
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