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On Saturday, May 20, the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) at
Acadia National Park is offering an opportunity for area residents and Park
visitors to engage, hands-on, in some interesting scientific research that
examines plant responses to attacks by predators. This event is one of several
"Resource
Acadia" programs that enable participants to interact with researchers
who are actively engaged in work at the Park.
In this program, Dr. Jeremy Long will welcome participants to his
research site in Ship Harbor on Mount Desert Island, where he is studying the way
that Fucus vesiculosus -- rockweed -- responds to grazing by two kinds of snails and by
an isopod -- Idotea baltica -- a marine relative of the sow bug. Dr.
Long's research is at the leading edge of work that explores evidence of newly
discovered, more complex interactions between plants and animals. Not too
long ago, the assumption was simply that animals eat plants -- period. If
you had more herbivores grazing on plants, the assumption was that plant
population would decrease in direct proportion to the increase in
predators. However, recent work has shown that some plants can
actually respond to attack in ways that make the plants less palatable to the
herbivores -- in some cases with a response that is specific to the attacking
animal. This brings new complexity to the population dynamics in the ecosystem.
Dr. Long has preliminary evidence that grazing by one of the snail species (Littorina obtusata
-- smooth periwinkle) makes the rockweed less palatable for both kinds of snails
in the experiment as well as for the isopod. But grazing by the other snail (Littorina littorea -- common periwinkle) had no
apparent affect on the palatability of the seaweed for any of the herbivores. In
short, Dr. Long has evidence of a seaweed response to one particular predator.
This is an important finding in terms of our understanding the dynamics of the
rocky intertidal ecosystems surrounding the islands that make up the Park. His
current research focuses on gaining a better understanding of the conditions in
which these responses happen.
Participants will take a short hike to visit one of Dr.
Long’s field sites and learn more about his project and the questions he hopes
to answer. They will meet the primary seaweeds and herbivores found in
Acadia’s rocky intertidal habitat and will participate in seaweed and
herbivore abundance surveys using transect lines and quadrats. The program
begins at 9 AM and will end at 12:30 PM. To register, send email to Jim_McKenna@nps.gov
or call Jim at 207-288-8733.
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