Sensory Reception in Crustacean Zooplankton

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The goal of this research is to characterize the mechanosensors on the first antenna of calanoid copepods and evaluate their importance for prey and predator detection. Behavioral and morphological analyses have indicated that mechanoreception may be critical to pelagic copepods for prey detection, predator avoidance and mate recognition. Yet mechanoreception in copepods has not been studied physiologically. Dr. Hartline and a collaborator at the State University of New York, Stony Brook will combine expertise in copepod ecology and crustacean neurophysiology to investigate the sensory capabilities of copepods physiologically, and to integrate the sensory physiology with data on their ecology. The basic objectives of this project are: 1. To characterize the physiological responses to quantified mechanical stimuli. 2. To relate the physiological data to the external and internal morphology of the sensors. 3. To determine intraspecific differences in physiological properties and relate these to differences in species ecology. 4. To measure behavioral responses to mechanical stimuli and relate these to the physiological properties and the species ecology.