By: Naomi, Ashley, and Jesse
Mussels!
Today, we spoke with Dr. Emily Carrington, a biology professor at the University of Washington who studies mussels and the ecophysiology of wave-exposed organisms. Dr. Carrington explained the many behaviors of mussels and their impact on the environment (aside from the amazing food).
Dr. Carrington studies how the mussels attach, what causes these attachments to weaken, and how global warming impacts the mussels. The focus of Dr. Carrington’s lecture was the glue and byssus that mussels use to attach to rocks. These materials help the mussels stick to wet, salty surfaces, and keep them grounded when exposed to the elements.
Are Dr. Carrington and her team on to a new type of super glue?
Comic of the waves’ impact on mussels.
And Snails!
Next up, Dr. Hilary Hayford, a coastal marine geologist who tracks the effects of climate change on nearshore species. She spoke to us about Dogwinkle (Nucella lapillus) snails and how the tides affect their feeding patterns.
Her numerous experiments demonstrated when and how the snails forage. A snail’s journey to their prey – mussels – is long and dangerous as they are slow-moving and vulnerable to heat. The snails must time their trips wisely.
The Dogwinkle snails are unable to survive heat over 34º Celsius. They must forage during the two high-low tide cycles when the lowest tide occurs at night. This way, the outside temperatures will be cool enough for the snails to stay hydrated.
Dr. Hayford made it clear that the window of time to help these creatures survive the effects of global warming is small. Soon it will become too warm for the snails to make the long journey up to their food. However, climate change’s ticking time bomb doesn’t just impact the intertidal zones: practically every environmental ecosystem will be adversely influenced. We must act quickly!
Mussels in areas with high and low temperatures
And Octopuses!
Yep. You heard us right, octopuses! Dominic Sivitilli, a Ph.D. student in behavioral neuroscience and astrobiology, confirms that the plural of octopus is in fact “octopuses”.
The final hours of the day flew by as Dominic hypnotized us with videos of wandering octopus legs and suckers. These benthic beings are some of the most ecologically unique in the ocean. With camouflaging powers, soft bodies, and decentralized nervous systems, octopuses are quite an unusual intelligent being.
Dominic’s work mainly focuses on the nervous system of this intricate invertebrate. Thousands of suckers line the eight flexible arms of the octopus, each equipped with chemical and mechanical receptors. Each individual sucker is hundreds of times more sensitive than the human fingertip!
Armed with its own computational system, each sucker is constantly scouring the surrounding objects in order to decipher between food and foe. When one sucker finds something intriguing, it recruits its buddies in hopes of possessing the object.
An octopus examines its surroundings
Although the octopus is colorblind, it is mysteriously capable of amazing camouflage.
Oh My!
In between the constant, captivating lectures, we have been continuing to conduct our own research in hopes of making our own great scientific contributions.