Aplysia californica algal preference

January 3, 1999
From: Christine Nguyen

Dear Bill,
         My name is Christine Nguyen and I am a marine biology student at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California. For an individual research project, I am going to survey the amount of sea hares in one particular area of a tidepool in relationship to the percentage of different types of algae by using a 4 meter quadrat to then determine the sea hares' food preference in the different types of algae. I'm not finding much luck in finding information regarding algae preference, so do you have any recommendation as far as how I should go about starting my project as well as any information regarding the food preference of sea hares through research?

Your help is greatly needed and appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
    
Sincerely,
                                             Christine Nguyen

Ctngirl@aol.com

Nguyen, C., 1999 (Jan 3) Aplysia californica algal preference. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/432

Dear Christine,
I guess the sea hare you are looking at is Aplysia californica. I'm afraid I am not an expert on Californian sea slugs but if you have access to either of Kandel's books, or the article which I list below you will get some background reading. Aplysia californica is now an important research animal in behaviour and learning studies and so there are many published articles on it. have a look at the website I mention in a message below of the NIH-Aplysia Resource Facility in Miami, Florida. I think the site has just been updated. It is at: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/groups/sea-hares/. In their online newsletter Slimelines Vol 2, they discuss research on feeding Aplysia californica. However they are feeding their animals on a red algae which doesn't occur in California.

In their natural environment, Aplysia californica change their food as they grow. They normally settle out of the plankton onto red algae (often Laurencia) and then gradually move higher up the shore where they feed on brown and green algae. This is a pattern followed by species of Sea Hare throughout the world. I suspect any study you do would need to take into account the size of the Sea Hares you are counting. Since they change their food preference as they grow you would have to separate them into size groups to make any sense of your observations. However it is not just a simple change of diet once a certain size is reached because they will eat other than the preferred food if it is not available. If you look at the website on the group who are breeding Aplysia californica they feed their animals on a red algae Gracilaria for their whole life - and its a species of algae that the Sea hare would never find naturally.

Concerning the identification of algae. I am sure there must be a good book which you could use. My suggestion is that you get in touch with your local Natural History museum or see if a Botany or Biology dept at a local University can't give you some help. Surfing the web can be very useful but so can making contact with local experts.

Please let me know how your study turns out,
and if anyone in California who reads this can give Christine advice please do.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

References:
Kandel,ER (1979): Behavioural Biology of Aplysia. San Francisco, W.H.Freeman&Co.463pp.

Kandel,ER (1976): Cellular Basis of Behaviour. An introduction to behavioural neurobiology. W.H.Freeman & Co., San Francisco. 727 pages.

Stallard,MO; Faulkner,DJ (1974): Chemical constituents of the digestive gland of the sea hare Aplysia californica - I. Importance of diet. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 49 B, 25-35.

Rudman, W.B., 1999 (Jan 3). Comment on Aplysia californica algal preference by Christine Nguyen. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/432

Factsheet

Aplysia californica

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