1.1 Introduction
Anurida maritima (Guérin-Méneville, 1836) is a cosmopolitan species of intertidal Collembola that is part of the Poduridae family. To protect themselves from high tide, they go towards the upper area of the shore and aggregate during high tide under rocks or in crevices. They travel down the shore during low tide to forage. It has been hypothesised that an internal circartidal clock is used to regulate aggregation patterns during high tide. The mechanism underlying the circatidal clock is not fully understood, although it is possible that zeitgebers influence the clock. 1.2 Petri Dish Observations
Previous studies have shown that the circatidal clock of A. maritima can free run in the laboratory for seven days. Animals were placed in petri dishes to attempt to replicate these findings, and a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ was attached to a Camera Module to regularly take regular photographs of their behaviour. A Python script was used to control the Camera Module. An analysis of the number of aggregating animals showed little difference between high tide and low tide, and there also appeared to be little difference in movement between high tide and low tide. This could be due to the length of time that animals were kept in the laboratory before observation began, or it could be due to issues in quality of imaging and tracking methods. 1.3 Survival Experiments
To find optimal find optimal laboratory conditions for A. maritima, single individuals were placed in Specimen Bottles containing either a mix of activated charcoal, plaster of paris, and distilled water, or beach clay. They were fed with Love Fish temperate food, Italian parmesan shavings, or the bivalve mollusc Mytilus edulis. There did not appear to be a significant different between conditions, suggesting that all conditions were not conducive to A. maritima survival. 1.4 Artificial Beach
A novel type of artificial beach environment was created to observe the behaviour of A. maritima in an environment that is as similar to their natural environment as possible. A peristaltic pump was controlled by a Raspberry Pi so that Animals survived for a longer period in the artificial beach environment than in petri dishes or Specimen Bottles. 1.5 Conclusions
An artificial beach environment appears to be more conducive to the wellbeing of A. maritima than other laboratory conditions. This artificial beach environment requires further developed to allow for further studies over a longer period of time to both track behaviour and investigate whether manipulating conditions can change rhythmic behaviour in A. maritima. |