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Lighting a fire under our friends..

….well, that might be a bit extreme. Our elevated temperature will not do harm to our barnacles and mussels, as both organisms are living in the intertidal zone and are used to pretty extreme daily and seasonal variations. Nevertheless a constant temperature change is likely to cause a reaction. Even you would be confused with suddenly 30 Degrees in January and probably your metabolism as well.



But before we could make it comfy for them, we had to fix some troubles with the technical equipment. During the night one of the heaters went off and the temperature fell again. Luckily Francine and Luigi, our tech-crew, were able to solve the problem and we were finally able to start our experiment without losing too much time.
Before starting our actual experiment which involves feeding behaviour, we needed to give them some time to get used to their new living conditions in the laboratory. The acclimatisation period is vital and makes sure that we avoid biased results. 
While the guys were acclimating, we used the time to get them some dinner. Luckily they are not picky and the bay of Tjärnö is full of their preferred food - plankton. Equipped with fine nets, we went out on the boat and brought back a nice selection of different micro-algae and planktonic organisms for them.


Now we just hope that they will be hungry….

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