Question: Suppose that B. madurai is commonly collected in freshwater areas near boat harbors and marinas but is rarely found in pristine Waters. First, design an experiment that tests an adaptation of B. madurai to some aspect of its environment. In your design, be sure to include a question to test, a hypothesis, and a plan for how you will collect and analyze data. Then, descŕibe experimental results that would support 

your hypothesis.

2) Research Question: How well does B. madurai adapt to water with different oxygen concentrations. How does this affect their hatching viability and therefore survival rate?

Hypothesis: It is very likely that freshwater near boat harbors and marinas have been contaminated, if not polluted, with biodegradable substances such as food refuse, tree leaves, and grass clippings. Microorganisms that live in water feed on these substances, and when too much biodegradable material is added to water, the number of microorganisms increase and use up the oxygen available in the water. This leads to oxygen depletion. When oxygen levels in water are depleted, these relatively harmless aerobic microorganisms die and anaerobic microorganisms begin to thrive. Some of these microorganisms are harmful to people and the environment, including B. madurai. Like humans, low concentrations of oxygen can strain the development of B. madurai and their offspring/embryos. However, because B. madurai has also mutated to survive in water with lower oxygen concentrations, it will most likely not survive in pristine waters where oxygen concentration is comparatively higher. Evidence which proves this fact is stated in the background information: B. madurai is “rarely found in pristine waters.”

Plan: Diffusion is a very slow process where oxygen from saturated water at the surface slowly diffuses into the less-saturated water below the surface, until the entire body of water reaches equilibrium (in terms of oxygen concentration). By using aeration devices such as bubblers, and spitters, which breaks the water surface and encourages gas exchange, we will be able to have some control over the oxygen concentration. Data will be collected the same way we collected data for the Brine Shrimp Experiment.

Experimental Results: Movement of water would most probably disrupt the hatching of some embryos, but nonetheless, they would still probably hatch. If my hypothesis is correct, then very few B. madurai would hatch in pristine waters and low oxygen concentrations of water.