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Pavel Saikin, Jasia R., Allie Z. Mrs. Arrigoni Biology Acc, Period 8 3 September 2008

Isopod Environment Experiment The Purpose: The Purpose of this experiment was to find out what kind of environment isopods live in. The experiment determined the specifications of isopod’s natural habitat.

The hypothesis: If isopods are given the choice to either go to a moist environment or a dry environment, then they will go to the moist environment because they are commonly found under rocks, which are moist environments.

Materials: •	Two petri dishes combined by a narrow path •	Water •	Beaker •	Eye dropper •	Isopods •	Paint brush •	Filtered paper

Safety:

There were no safety precautions in this lab.

Procedure: Isopods are placed into petri dishes that are connected. The isopods are first observed for ten minutes in the petri dishes without a stimulus. After the information is gathered and recorded then filtered paper with twenty drops of water from the beaker using an eye dropper is placed on one of the petri dishes. The isopods are separated evenly using a paint brush among the two petri dishes. Every thirty seconds each petri dish must be counted for the number of isopods in each dish. The information must be gathered for ten minutes. Once the data is acquired then the isopods are placed back into their container.

Conclusion: This experiment was used to determine whether isopods prefer a moist environment or a dry environment. Isopod’s movements, as observed without a stimulus, are best described as kinesis because they have no set direction. Their main instinct was to climb over the wall of the petri dish once they realized there was no alternate way out. They do not display aggressive movements because they all have one common purpose and they climb on top of each other to form a ladder so that they may escape. Once the stimulus was introduced the hypothesis was proven correct because isopods prefer a moist environment. The isopods were placed in an unknown environment with a new stimulus. Their immediate reaction was to search for a comforting and familiar environment, which was the moist petri dish. Isopods are commonly found under rocks, “They prefer moist areas, often living in soil and under decaying leaves, rocks, and dead logs (ucmp.berkeley.edu).” Data table 1, data table 2, data table 3, and data table 4 all provide evidence that the isopods would prefer a moist environment. The data tables depict how the isopods started out evenly separated among a moist and dry side, but over time they crawled to the moist side. Data Table 1 shows how fifteen isopods were split evenly and within the first thirty seconds there were ten isopods on the moist side and only five on the dry side. Isopods require a moist environment because their breathing organs need to stay moist, “they still require moist habitats because their delicate gill-like breathing organs must be kept moist (pestcontrolcanada.com).” This need for water is the main factor for the isopods desire for a moist environment. The isopods were placed in an unknown environment with a new stimulus. Their immediate reaction was to search for a comforting and familiar environment, which was the moist petri dish. Isopods also prefer a dark environment, since they are commonly located in dark environments, as data table 5 shows. There were more isopods after ten minutes on the dark side as opposed to on the light side. This information is also contradictory with data table 6 which shows how isopods preferred a light environment. This may have been the result because the isopods might have realized there was no escaping from an enclosed dark space so they went to the open petri dish in search of an exit. Their environment is also cold because in data table 7 displays how more isopods preferred to be in a cold environment. The final component of an isopod’s environment is that it is a basic environment. Data table 8’s results show that all the isopods were on the basic side and there were none on the acidic side after ten minutes. Isopod’s environment is moist, dark, cold, and basic.

Biological Application: Isopods can be compared to fungi. Both fungi and isopods live in moist environments and require a moist environment for survival. Isopods use the moist environment in order to keep their breathing organs moist so that they may survive. Fungi use the moist environment to help it grow. Both isopods and fungi require moisture to help maintain their homeostasis.

http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/pill_bugs_sow_bugs.htm http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/grasslands.php http://tolweb.org/fungi