The Effects of Temperature on Intraspecific Aggression for Procambarus clarkii
Presentation Type
Poster
Keywords
Procambarus clarkii, Intraspecific Aggression
Department
Biology
Major
Biology
Abstract
Climate change has caused global water temperatures to be on the rise, especially in Southern California’s streams. Published studies analyzed the aggression of aquatic species when the water temperatures rise, and in most of the studies aggression is linear with temperature (McLarney et al., 1970) . Studying this trend is especially important in invasive species that may cause havoc within the ecosystems that they are introduced. Procambarus clarkii, or more commonly known as the Red Swamp Crayfish, is one of the most widespread invasive species in the world (Loureiro, Tainã Gonçalves et al., 2015). They are also known to heavily disrupt the ecosystems that they are introduced to due to their innate aggression and opportunistic omnivorous natures (Kats, 2003). For this study we measured the intraspecific aggression between P. clarkii in a temperature of 23 C and a temperature of 10 C. To do this we used a scale ranging from -2 to 4 with negatives being acts of non-aggression and positives being progressively more aggressive acts. We used 30 crayfish for our trials in the 23 C water and 30 in our trials in the 10 C water. We found that the crayfish in the experiment were more aggressive in the 10 C water than in the 23 C temperature with a P value <.05.
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Lee Kats
Funding Source or Research Program
Not Identified
Location
Waves Cafeteria
Start Date
29-3-2019 2:00 PM
End Date
29-3-2019 3:00 PM
The Effects of Temperature on Intraspecific Aggression for Procambarus clarkii
Waves Cafeteria
Climate change has caused global water temperatures to be on the rise, especially in Southern California’s streams. Published studies analyzed the aggression of aquatic species when the water temperatures rise, and in most of the studies aggression is linear with temperature (McLarney et al., 1970) . Studying this trend is especially important in invasive species that may cause havoc within the ecosystems that they are introduced. Procambarus clarkii, or more commonly known as the Red Swamp Crayfish, is one of the most widespread invasive species in the world (Loureiro, Tainã Gonçalves et al., 2015). They are also known to heavily disrupt the ecosystems that they are introduced to due to their innate aggression and opportunistic omnivorous natures (Kats, 2003). For this study we measured the intraspecific aggression between P. clarkii in a temperature of 23 C and a temperature of 10 C. To do this we used a scale ranging from -2 to 4 with negatives being acts of non-aggression and positives being progressively more aggressive acts. We used 30 crayfish for our trials in the 23 C water and 30 in our trials in the 10 C water. We found that the crayfish in the experiment were more aggressive in the 10 C water than in the 23 C temperature with a P value <.05.