Gooday snail enthusiasts! We have lots to update you on since our last post: from escape artists to car batteries, who knew the lengths we would go for our dear little snails.
Anti-Escape Tape
Excellent example of escapee deterrent tape doing its job (snail has been renamed “Spidersnail”).
Our new anti-escape tape expertly added by Elisa was put to good use as a few of our snails are still not warming to the Japanese spa that has been lovingly hand crafted for them. However after 3 hours the majority of them could be found on the rocks. We have now started our second round of experiments where we place the snails underwater at the bottom of the rock instead of on top in the dry zone. So far the results look promising but statistical analysis will be needed to see if there is a significant difference in zone preference.
One way to rectify this problem would be to switch batteries every 7 or so hours while the device was out in the field. However this would mean climbing over slippery rocks with torches in the night to get to the device (and as budding students we do need our 8 hours sleep…). Lukas and I (Robyn) therefore decided that the only real course of action would (naturally) be to wire a 12V car battery up to the data logger which would give enough power to run the whole 24 hours. This initially surprised our main coordinator of IMBRSea but he said that if we could do it and not blow up or melt anything then it was acceptable (many thanks Tim).
Lukas attempting to power the Ardunio data logging device with a car battery.
Happily when Lukas, Camille and Elisa went to retrieved the Arduino it was logging and we finally managed to log 24 hours’ worth of data , one data point for every minute! Now we can look at the data and use it to confirm the height of the tides, water temperature and light intensity during a full tidal cycle.
While somewhat daunting giving an interview like this it is important to get the general public involved and interested in marine science and hopefully we helped with that, and thanks to our wonderful snails of course for also participating.
Elisa and Ines making the stop motion section of the movie.
We hope to be able to post to a link to the completed film in our next blog post. So stay tuned for more exciting snail adventures!
Written by Robyn Murdoch
Anti-Escape Tape
Excellent example of escapee deterrent tape doing its job (snail has been renamed “Spidersnail”).
Our new anti-escape tape expertly added by Elisa was put to good use as a few of our snails are still not warming to the Japanese spa that has been lovingly hand crafted for them. However after 3 hours the majority of them could be found on the rocks. We have now started our second round of experiments where we place the snails underwater at the bottom of the rock instead of on top in the dry zone. So far the results look promising but statistical analysis will be needed to see if there is a significant difference in zone preference.
Arduino at large
After many trials and tribulations (and many batteries) we discovered that the 9V batteries that we were using to power our Arduino data logging device were not strong enough to make it through the night. Looking at the data we managed to record it appears that as the battery drained the distance sensor first stopped working as it draws the most power. All remaining sensors then failed when the battery ran out of power after approximately 8 hours.One way to rectify this problem would be to switch batteries every 7 or so hours while the device was out in the field. However this would mean climbing over slippery rocks with torches in the night to get to the device (and as budding students we do need our 8 hours sleep…). Lukas and I (Robyn) therefore decided that the only real course of action would (naturally) be to wire a 12V car battery up to the data logger which would give enough power to run the whole 24 hours. This initially surprised our main coordinator of IMBRSea but he said that if we could do it and not blow up or melt anything then it was acceptable (many thanks Tim).
Lukas attempting to power the Ardunio data logging device with a car battery.
Happily when Lukas, Camille and Elisa went to retrieved the Arduino it was logging and we finally managed to log 24 hours’ worth of data , one data point for every minute! Now we can look at the data and use it to confirm the height of the tides, water temperature and light intensity during a full tidal cycle.
Science Live Stream
As part of the marine awareness week that is currently ongoing in this part of Sweden, Ines and I volunteered to be part of a live stream that was broadcast to a shopping centre in Gothenburg for the general public. Although our knowledge of Swedish was few and far between, we gave a simplified account (in English) of our experiment, views of this beautiful research station here on Tjärnö and the reasons why we chose this masters programme.While somewhat daunting giving an interview like this it is important to get the general public involved and interested in marine science and hopefully we helped with that, and thanks to our wonderful snails of course for also participating.
Magnificent Movie Making
Lastly as part of the programme here we have been tasked with making a short film about our experiments here (a task which we take very seriously).Elisa and Ines making the stop motion section of the movie.
We hope to be able to post to a link to the completed film in our next blog post. So stay tuned for more exciting snail adventures!
Written by Robyn Murdoch
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