Researcher ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9517-9386

Graduation Year

2021

Date of Submission

11-2020

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Environmental Analysis

Reader 1

Sarah E. Gilman

Reader 2

Branwen Williams

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

2020 Nhi G Phan

Abstract

The body temperatures of intertidal species are strongly dependent on the temperature of their external environment. This study sought to understand the impact of a substrate’s color and subsequent temperature on Balanus glandula in order to predict the potential effects of warming temperatures from climate change on intertidal species. Barnacles were allowed to settle and grow on three differently colored plates and were photographically monitored over the course of eleven weeks. Settlement and survivorship were recorded on-site, while growth was tracked utilizing digital imaging software. It was hypothesized that barnacles on peach plates would perform the best since the ambient temperature most closely matched their natural substrate’s. The results supported this, finding that ambient, peach tiles had significantly higher growth rates compared to cool, white and warm, green tiles (F < 0.0001, p=0<0.0001, df=2,301.1) over a five-week subperiod. However, barnacle survivorship showed no significant difference between treatments (F=2.17 p=0.143 df=2,18) due to high mortality for all tiles. Overall, the study found that substrate temperature had significant effects on barnacle growth and survival over a short-term period, but is less important in the long term. Considering the other impacts of climate change unaccounted for in this study, the combined effects of these variations in addition to temperature could threaten the survival of thermosensitive intertidal species as global temperatures continue to rise.

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