Presentation Title
The Effects of Temperature on Intraspecific Aggression on Procambarus clarkii
Faculty Mentor
Lee Kats
Start Date
17-11-2018 8:30 AM
End Date
17-11-2018 10:30 AM
Location
CREVELING 35
Session
POSTER 1
Type of Presentation
Poster
Subject Area
biological_agricultural_sciences
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. We found that the crayfish in the experiment were significantly more aggressive in the colder temperature than in the warmer temperature.
Summary of research results to be presented
Temperature had an inverse relationship with intraspecific aggression, the colder the temperature the greater the aggression of the crayfish, Procambarus Clarkii. The data was shown to be significant with a P value less than .05.
The Effects of Temperature on Intraspecific Aggression on Procambarus clarkii
CREVELING 35
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. We found that the crayfish in the experiment were significantly more aggressive in the colder temperature than in the warmer temperature.