Osmolarity

Extract

[...] Methods My group and I followed the procedure as written in Foundations of Biology: Cell and Organ Physiology (Faculty of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, SUSB), the only difference being that our class had very limited access to worms. In result only two groups were able to perform trials on the worms and the rest of the class used data from previous experiments. Results As can be seen in Table 1 as well as in Table 2a, in which we are known as group our clam's weights changed by minuscule amounts over the course of an hour. [...]

[...] Graph 1 on the other hand shows some surprising finds as it shows the clams a much greater weight than expected and overall behaving erratically. This is especially obvious in the trend line for clams in 125% salinity, as they lost a large amount of weight quickly, based on the class averages. WORMS Table 2a Table 2b Table 3a Salinit y Table 3b Salinit y Nereis Worms Table 4 avg. change in weight Mercenaria Clams Table 5 avg. percent change in weight Nereis Worms Mercenaria Clams Discussion This experiment was set up in order for us to identify and see first hand the differences between the bodily functions of osmoregulators and osmoconformers, and although worms were not available to us we were still able to get a sense of the process. [...]

[...] order to survive in a hypotonic environment, osmoregulators must pump out excess water; conversely, in order to survive in a hypertonic environment, osmoregulators must take in a lot of water (Campbell, 936-939). Being an osmoregulator is beneficial in many regards but like everything has several drawbacks. Osmoregulators use up a large percentage of their energy to regulate their internal environment and hence need more energy sources, and yet this allows them to live in a incredibly wide range on environments. [...]