Water Fleas – Living in the Extreme - Tuesday, Jan. 11, 7 pm
A tiny crustacean found in the clear waters of Seven Lakes Basin provides opportunities to understand how life evolves in extreme conditions in unusual ways. Lacking the pigment melanin these water fleas still are able to thrive in an environment of extreme UV radiation.
Daphnia ("water fleas") from clearer ponds above the alpine treeline survive better under UV radiation in the laboratory than Daphnia from darker ponds below the treeline where there is less UV radiation. Therefore evolution in the clear ponds has allowed the animals there to become tougher and better able to survive in a stressful environment. Yet one of the results is puzzling: these animals do not have melanin pigmentation (a protective ‘sun-tanning’ mechanism) like most crustaceans from high-UV habitats.
Our speaker is Brooks Miner, PhD candidate, Department of Biology, University of Washington. His talk will be presented at the Olympic NP Visitors Center Auditorium at 7 pm next Tuesday, January 11. This is one of the Perspectives Series, co-sponsored by Friends, Olympic National Park and Discover Your Northwest.
