Research Summary:
Aggregations commonly occur across a suite of species. Aggregations aid routine
tasks such as protection from predators, food gathering or finding
a mate. Dependent on purpose, animals utilize different signals for
aggregation or environmental cues such as season, temperature or resource
presence to know when and where to aggregate. Studying mechanisms
behind aggregation tests alternate hypotheses for patterns ecologists
see in the field.
Where I've been and Where I'm going: To assess
aggregation, I developed a method to measure distance to the nearest
neighbor for three snail densities (3 snails = 3.33 snails m-2; 6
snails = 6.7 snails m-2; and 9 snails =10 snails m-2). Inflatable
pools (122 cm diameter) provided our experimental arena for me to observe
snail interactions. For each pool, I took digital pictures (640
by 480 pixels taken every 15 minutes) that we can then measure digitally
on the computer. I finished my capstone and graduated in Spring of 2009.
I'm currently working but hope to gain some more ecology experience and
eventually apply to a Master's program.
