Understanding the elemental variation of threespine stickleback along the Sooke River
| dc.contributor.author | Rozanski, Sarah | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-03-16T15:50:46Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-03-16T15:50:46Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Fish play an important role in nutrient cycling in freshwater ecosystems. They convert a subset of dietary nutrients like phosphorus into waste products, which serve as fuel for primary producers like algae. The composition of waste products depends on what that organism requires for maintenance, growth, and reproduction. Different fish have different nutrient requirements. For example, if a fish has a relatively high proportion of bone, which is very phosphorus rich, you would expect that fish to use as much of the dietary phosphorus as possible and waste very little. Current studies compare the nutrients required and wasted by different species, but my research focuses on a single species: the threespine stickleback. Threespine stickleback display a wide range of variation in their phosphorus-rich bony armour. I hope to predict the proportions of nutrients in stickleback waste products based on the proportions in their bodies and diets. I collected stickleback from five sites along the Sooke River, measured their excretion rates in the field, and quantified the nutrient contents of their bodies and waste products. By understanding how the variation in stickleback bodies and diets relate to the contents of their wastes, we can better understand how animals affect their environments. | |
| dc.description.reviewstatus | Reviewed | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Undergraduate | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA) | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/16143 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of Victoria | |
| dc.subject | nutrient cycling | |
| dc.subject | threespine stickleback | |
| dc.subject | intraspecific variation | |
| dc.title | Understanding the elemental variation of threespine stickleback along the Sooke River | |
| dc.type | Poster |