The Deadly Duo: How increased salt and temperature impact the survivorship of freshwater copepods
Sharp, Sydney
Sharp, Sydney
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Abstract
Increasingly frequent winter warming events cause the environment to alternate from freezing to melting which can have a major impact on lake ecosystems. Specifically, road salt application followed by melting leads to runoff and increased salinity in freshwater ecosystems with detrimental effects on zooplankton communities such as reduction in thermal tolerance. Stressors of high salinity may occur in an isolated manner or in tandem with warming events. Previous work from our lab demonstrated the negative impacts road salt has on copepod survivorship, however, the same negative effects were not observed with artificial sea water. This project seeks to test the effects of major ions found in road salt, NaCl and MgCl2, on survival and thermal tolerance in two freshwater copepod species, Leptodiaptomus minutus and L. sicilis. Copepods were exposed to 8 doses of each salt during a 5-day survivorship experiment followed by critical thermal tolerance (CTmax) assays. L. minutus is present in the lake from August to January while L. sicilis is present in the lake from November to June. Given this temporal distribution, I predict L. sicilis may be more resilient to changes in salinity than L. minutus. Limited work has been performed on freshwater copepod response to salinity despite the fact that salinity increases and warming are increasingly concurrent stressors in our current climate conditions. This work aims to fill that gap to help inform policy and management to protect our lake ecosystem.
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Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Senior (Graduating in 2026)
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Oral Presentation
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Program/Major
Biological Sciences
College/School
College of Arts and Sciences
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Life Science 1