Title:

Artemia salina Survivability in Lowered pH Conditions

Our research focuses on the ongoing issue of ocean acidification in the Atlantic Ocean, and its implicit effects on the stability of ecosystems and the well-being of organisms within the ocean. We wanted to know how lower-pH water affects the hatch rate of organisms within these ecosystems, particularly Artemia salina, as a lens through which we could assess pH’s effects on organism survivability and ecosystem stability. By studying pH and how it changed the hatch rate of such a sensitive organism, we wanted to show that allowing ocean acidification to progress at the rate it has been will disrupt the populations of sensitive primary consumers such as Artemia salina, and potentially wildly disrupt the food chain in the Atlantic. To do this, we set up three environments at standard and lowered pH’s, which simulate conditions from ocean acidification. We then placed samples of Artemia salina eggs into each environment, and studied their hatch rate over a range of time points. After collecting data from these time points, we found significant differences in the number of mature specimens in each condition. These data suggest that, as the pH in oceanic water continues to lower, population density for sensitive organisms like Artemia salina, which sit at the base of the food chain, will also decrease.

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