IMBRSea Joint School - Adventures at the Swedish Coast

Hello our dear snail geeks! We have come to the end of the IMBRSea Joint School 2018 and this is very sad news. But let us tell you about the last few days. Since our last blogpost there is a lot we want to update you on. We have been really busy with finishing the last experiments in the lab. Of course our snails couldn’t have been the same if they hadn’t kept escaping our spa till the very last experiment replicate. Despite their ever-consistent escape antics we got some results! We have learnt that snails move differently according to their original habitats (dry, splash or wet zone) and the ones that were more active were the ones that originally were in the splash zone, unlike the snails in the dry zone who were less active. We observed that snails become magically “activated” when they are in contact with water, which awakens their desire to move and travel across our tanks and also in the field. After gathering all of our thoughts and results we locked ourselv...

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. Arduino at large After many trials and tribulations (and many batteries) we discovered that the 9V batteries that we were using to power our Arduin...

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...

Hello fellow marine science lovers! This is the first of a series of blogposts in which we will tell you about our time at Tjarno Marine Station, in Sweden, as part of the Joint School module of IMBRSea master’s programme. Our group is formed of 5 intrepid ocean researchers-to-be from very diverse backgrounds both in terms of our previous studies and country of origin. The aim of the Joint School module is to replicate the process of producing a research paper, therefore we will be planning, designing, executing and hopefully succeeding at producing a great study! This is our crew looking very confused during our first brainstorming meeting!     Getting to know the new lands... Our proposed study is, on broad terms, about the fauna (we chose snails!) we find in the microtidal zone along the West Coast of the Swedish Baltic sea. Microtidal refers to the fact that the tidal movements here are very small, a lot less than what most of us were used to in central w...