How Temperature Affects The Activity Level Of The Cepaea Nemoralis

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The objective of this study was to determine how temperature affects the activity level of the Cepaea nemoralis. Both experiments showed the same relative trend of increased movement in a warm environment as opposed to decreased movement in a cold environment. Both trials had a much greater mean distance travelled over one minute in the warm environment than they did in the cold environment. However, many snails displayed no activity in the cold environment by retracting into their shells and whenever fresh hot water was added to the hot treatment to keep the temperature stable, the snails would get agitated and begin to crawl up the walls of the glass bowl. Generally, the 30 degrees Celsius temperature increased the locomotion of the snails, and the 5 degrees Celsius restricted its ability to move. In a study, it was concluded that muscle contraction is inhibited by low temperatures, therefore we predicted that the C. nemoralis would move much quicker when exposed to high temperatures than it would when exposed to lower temperatures (Holewijn & Heus, 1992). Our results were consistent with our prediction because in both trials, the C. nemoralis on average had a higher mean distance travelled in the hot treatment than in the cold treatment.
These findings are in agreement with the results of a similar experiment which tested the effect of temperature on locomotion of the Lymnaea stagnalis, a close relative of to the C. nemoralis (Sidorov, 2000). The experiment showed that the snails moved at a rate of 1.4mm/s in temperatures from 4-6 degrees Celsius, whereas some snails moved at a mean rate of 5.4 mm/s in temperatures ranging from 24-26 degrees Celsius. In our experiment, the average rate of movement was 2.38mm/s in 5 degrees Ce...

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...l habitat, or how much more or less they might travel during night at a given temperature. It is possible that the florescent light in the classrooms might have agitated the snails, causing a change in their behavior. To remove this constraint in future studies, experiments should be conducted dim settings, but not in completely dark rooms as this would prove measuring the path length of the snail difficult.
In conclusion, our results showed that overall, increased environmental temperature results in an increased activity levels of the Cepaea nemoralis. Likewise, a cold environmental temperature was shown to decrease its activity level. It was also found that larger snails travelled further in both temperature treatments than small snails and snails that were exposed to the cold treatment (5 degrees Celsius) displayed signs of endogenous aestivation (hibernation).

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