Based upon differing water salinities, the experiment tests the most favorable salinity level of Littorina spp. by measuring the movement produced. The experiment used a separate exposure treatment with the four treatments being 10, 20, 30 and 40 parts per thousand (ppt) saltwater. In trial 1, a moderate and a lower salinity environment were set up to determine which salinity the snails would best adapt to; thus, producing the most movement. Two separate arenas were created in 20 cm glass container with 200mL of 10 ppt and 30 ppt salinity water in their respective arenas, with 14 replicates being used. Similar to trial 1, the same two separate environments were set up in trial 2. However, a different high and a moderate salinity of 20 ppt and 40 ppt were used, with 16 replicates each. …show more content…
To conduct our experiment, we used two 20cm glass containers and fill them up with exactly 200 mL of respective salinities. To ensure that no water velocity is influencing the species tested, the water was settled down before moving our snails into the arena. The glass containers had been marked on the bottom to determine the center of the container. All the snails tested were then placed at the marking and were timed for 1 minute 30 seconds allowing 5 seconds for the snails to acclimate the conditions. The path of the snails was then traced using the acetate sheets and after the allotted time the length of the path was measured using a string and a