Behavior response of an alpine lake copepod to thin layer structure

• Main Author: Skipper, Anna
• Other Authors: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Webster, Donald R., Weissburg, Marc, Yen, Jeannette
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Georgia Institute of Technology 2017
• Subjects: Hesperodiaptomus shoshone; Thin layer; Alpine lake; Alpine Lake; Calanus finmarchicus; Copepods
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1853/56280

The objective of this study is to determine for the alpine copepod Hesperodiaptomus shoshone whether a) the species responds to hydromechanical cues in a manner similar to marine copepods, and b) if shear strain rate is an important cue in mating behavior. A free shear flow was simulated in the laboratory by creating laminar, planar free jet (the Bickley jet) in a recirculating system. The freshwater copepod H. shoshone exhibited a global treatment effect, significantly decreasing its speed and increasing its proportional vicinity time. Females also have significantly higher turn frequencies than males, with corresponding lower values of net-to-gross displacement ratio. However, none of these significant effects had interactions with the location of the copepod relative to the later or its exposure to the layer. This behavior response is markedly different than that of the physiologically similar marine copepod Calanus finmarchicus. This difference is due to differences in environment and ecology between the two animals. M.S.