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Moving day and other incidents

Dear snailings! Since our last post, a few days have passed (weekends are not a thing for us) and we can´t wait to tell you what has happened.

The Arduino Incident…


Lukas feeling proud after the successful Arduino installation
As you remember from our first blogpost, Robyn and I (Lukas) built our own data logging device with Arduino technology to document water temperature, sea surface level and light exposure in the field. So, after two days of wiring, testing, more wiring and more testing, we were finally able to deploy the logging station in a (almost) waterproofed box in an intertidal pool on the rocky shore of nearby Saltö island.

Lukas and Robyn securing the Arduino device using an incredibly wide range of physics knowledge – ropes and heavy rocks

The trip to deploy the device became an adventure as the sea was very choppy. Returning to the device the next day gave an unforeseen surprise. Due to the adverse weather conditions, seawater entered the box and caused a short-circuit in the system which caused not only loss of data, but also, and more severely, the loss of one of the built-in sensors. We were forced to retrieve the device after only one night… Initially we planned to deploy it for 24 hours in order to document one whole tidal cycle including two high and two low tides.
Disappointed, disheartened and slightly frustrated we gathered our energies to repair the device with even more focus on water-resistance. Surprised and truly delighted, while analysing the data we were able to recover, we saw the expected tidal patterns for 3 hours before the short-circuit. In particular the decrease of the water level (worked out from the distance sensor) due to the upcoming low tide gave us a boost to keep on working on our Arduino system.

Our snails moved in!

Meanwhile in the lab, Camille, Elisa and Ines finally succeeded in finishing the experimental setup and perfected the Japanese fountains, or more technically speaking, the device to create waves and a splash zone in our tanks for the snails.  Now everything was ready for our snails to move in. For each experiment we collected 30 snails, 10 from each zone (dry, splash and wet). To test their zone preference, we marked the snails with snail-polish (patent pending) and placed them on top of the rocks. After 3 hours, we checked if they had moved to a preferred zone on the rock.

Painted snails looking fabulous

Apparently our snails are enjoying the complete spa treatment in our tanks, from the session in the beauty salon with the colourful snail-polish to the relaxing Japanese fountains (or at least most of them). Some just want to escape from the tank. We had it on good authority that our species apparently hate sand, so we surrounded the rocks with sand to keep them on the rock, but the sand does not hinder their progress and contrary to popular belief they are quite fast!!

Escapist snails outside the tanks after 3 hours

Therefore we have added anti-escape shielding around the tanks to try and keep them in for the remainder of our experiments.
Find out next time whether or not it works and whether the Arduino system will finally survive 24 hours in the field (fingers tightly crossed).

Written by Lukas Marx
Edited by Robyn Murdoch and Elisa Hernandez

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