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SimBio Virtual Labs®

EcoBeaker®: The Barnacle Zone


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SimBio Virtual Labs®: EcoBeaker®

The Barnacle Zone

A WARNING FROM SIMBIO ABOUT CHEATING


You should know that, among other things, we periodically tinker with the underlying models
in our simulations so that the results they produce (i.e. the “right answers”) change, and we let
instructors know how to recognize cheating. We hope you do not succumb to the temptation
but, instead, go ahead and dive in. We’ve tried to make it a truly interesting experience and a
fun way to learn.

Background
When we tell our kids about different species and where they live, we naturally start talking about weather
and the physical environment. Camels are adapted to life in the desert and can go a long time without
water. Polar bears live in the Arctic and are adapted to cold with their thick layers of insulation. A polar bear
wouldn’t be very happy in the desert, and a camel would have a hard time in the Arctic (though a herd of
camels pulling a sled over the ice is an amusing image). The underlying idea is that in order to be adapted
to one environment, you necessarily give up the ability to live in other environments. But is this true for
most species? Do species live where they do primarily because of their adaptations to the physical
environment, or might the other species in the environment also be important?

The intertidal zone of rocky coastlines makes an interesting natural laboratory in which to explore these
questions. First, the physical environment itself is challenging. The intertidal zone is that portion of the shore
that is covered during high tide and exposed to air during low tide. If you think about how rocks would be
covered and exposed as tides come in and out (twice a day on average), you can see that, the higher an
organism lives on the rocks, the more time it will spend exposed to the air. You would expect, therefore, that
organisms living in the upper intertidal zone would need very different adaptations than those living in the
lower intertidal. In addition to including a range of physical environments, the intertidal zone is home to
many different kinds of organisms who spend their time either stuck to the rocks or moving slowly around

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

them. This makes it a great habitat in which to study how organisms interact with one another and whether
or not those interactions shape organisms’ distributions.

This lab simulates life on the side of a rock along the rocky intertidal coast of Scotland. Our simulated
rock is inhabited by two species of barnacles, small animals that, as adults, have shells that are shaped
like little volcanoes. Although they don’t look like it in their adult stages, barnacles are crustaceans,
related to crabs and lobsters. As adults, barnacle shells are cemented to a rock or other hard object, so
that an adult barnacle can’t move anywhere. When a barnacle is submerged, it opens its shell and uses
its feathery legs to filter the water for food particles. When the tide recedes and a barnacle is exposed
to the air, it closes its shell tightly to keep itself from drying out. Although the adult barnacle can’t
move, it makes larvae that can swim around in the water in search of appropriate places to settle and
live out their adult lives.

Two common species of barnacle live on the Scottish coast; one is Semibalanus balanoides (formerly Balanus
balanoides) and the other is Chthamalus montagui (formerly Chthamalus stellatus) When you walk along
the shore, you can see that above a certain height, the rocks are covered by Chthamalus but have very few
Semibalanus individuals. (Note: This lab refers to the two barnacle species by their Genera names.) Lower
on the rock, the pattern is reversed, with Semibalanus abundant and Chthamalus rare. In the early 1960s,
a researcher named Joseph Connell decided to investigate the cause of this pattern. He knew that one
important determinant of where intertidal organisms live is how much they are exposed to air. Connell
wanted to know whether exposure to air was the only condition that governed which species of barnacle
lived where, or whether some interaction between the two species of barnacles also had something to do
with it. In this lab, you’ll repeat some of Connell’s experiments.

Outline of This Lab


This lab takes you on a virtual field trip to the coast of Scotland. While exploring the marine life along
the shore, you encounter the side of a large rock upon which you find Chthamalus and Semibalanus,
the two types of barnacles described previously.

In this simulated system, the depth of the water covering the rock decreases each day when the tide
goes out, exposing barnacles on the upper part of the rock to air. This exposure may be difficult for
barnacles on the upper part of the rock to endure. On the other hand, being submerged underwater
for too long may be challenging to barnacles on the lower part of the rock. Competition may also
present a life-threatening challenge, as a larval barnacle may be able to settle next to or on top of a
stationary adult barnacle, and then grow over the top of it. Barnacles may also kill their neighbors in

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some way, perhaps through a poison or by some form of fighting. Some combination of these effects
is responsible for the distribution of the two species of barnacles on our simulated rock wall.

Note: In the real world, new individuals of both barnacle species settle on rocks continuously throughout
their reproductive periods. In this simulated system, once barnacles settle, they grow up right away, and
no individuals die of old age.

Your first challenge will be to come up with a set of hypotheses for why Chthamalus lives high
on the rock and Semibalanus lives lower down. Next, you will design and carry out experiments
to test your hypotheses. SimBio Virtual Labs includes tools that will allow you to replicate some
of Connell’s experiments, including removing barnacles, transplanting barnacles, and sampling
barnacle populations at different heights on the rock. Your final task will be to write a scientific report
summarizing your findings.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

Exercise 1: Exploring the System


In this exercise, you will observe the settlement and distribution patterns of barnacles on a rock face in
the intertidal zone. You will also study the tide cycle and its relationship to barnacle distribution. Along
the way, you’ll become familiar with the simulation and some of its tools.

[ 1 ] If you haven’t already, start SimUText® by double-clicking the program icon on your computer
or by selecting it from the Start menu. When the program opens, enter your Log In information
and select the Barnacle Zone lab from your My Assignments window. You will see a number of
different panels on the screen; these will be described as needed for the exercises in the lab.

[ 2 ] The top menu bar has a drop-down menu from which you will select individual exercises as you
proceed through the lab. Be sure that Exploring the System is selected.

[ 3 ] Buttons on the right will provide information about organisms in the lab. Click buttons for
Semibalanus and Chthamalus and read the descriptions. Use the information to answer the
following question:

[ 3.1 ] Which barnacle species ranges into the warmest water?

[ 4 ] Click the TIDES button in the Library Panel. Use the entry to complete the following questions:

[ 4.1 ] On average, how many high and low tides will a given spot on the coast experience in
a day, and why?

[ 4.2 ] What is a spring tide and when does it occur?

[ 4.3 ] What is a neap tide and when does it occur?

[ 5 ] The large panel on the left represents the vertical rock face where you’ll do your experiments. The
rock is initially devoid of life, as it might be after a major storm. The lower blue/green part of the
rock is under water. The ruler on the left marks off the vertical range of your study area in meters.
Note that “0 m” simply represents the lowest point you are studying, not the bottom of the rock.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

[ 6 ] Click the GO button in the Control Panel at the bottom of the screen to start the simulation. The
tide will begin coming in and going out and Chthamalus and Semibalanus will begin settling on
the rock. (The virtual barnacles are drawn much larger than actual barnacles; you can imagine that
each virtual barnacle represents 50-100 individuals.) The Tide Clock above the rock face tracks
daily high and low tides and the Time Elapsed monitor above the rock tracks days passed.

[ 6.1 ] How many high and low tides are there each day?

[7] Click the RESET button, and then the STEP 7 button to run the simulation for 7 days. This time,
pay attention to the graph on the right as it plots each high and each low tide each day. Click the
STEP 7 button again to complete the 14-day tidal cycle.

[ 7.1 ] What is the height of each of the following in your study area?

Spring high tide:

Spring low tide:

Neap high tide:

Neap low tide:

[ 7.2 ] If you are an organism that must remain submerged at all times, what is your
maximum height on the rock? Explain.

[ 7.3 ] During approximately which days in the 14-day tide cycle do organisms living low on
the rock experience their greatest potential exposure to air? Explain.

[ 7.4 ] During approximately which days in the 14-day tide cycle do organisms living on the
upper part of the rock face their greatest potential exposure to air? Explain.

[ 8 ] Click the RESET button to wipe the rock face clean. In the next set of simulation runs, focus on the
barnacles. Use the STEP 7 button to run the simulation for seven days at a time.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

[ 8.1 ] Briefly describe what you notice about the distribution patterns for each species on
the following days. Do both species settle on the same parts of the rock face? Do their
distribution patterns of the rock face change over time?

Days 1–7:

On day 28:

General observations:

[ 9 ] Develop a hypothesis for the patterns of distribution for Chthamalus and Semibalanus that you
observed.

[ 9.1 ] Hypothesis:

[ 10 ] Click the TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING button in the bottom right corner of the screen and
answer the question in the window that pops up.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

Exercise 2: Counting Barnacles


Connell studied many aspects of barnacle biology to address his question about their distributional
patterns. He started out by making (and quantifying) some basic observations. Connell did A LOT
of barnacle-counting by hand. Fortunately, you have some handy tools to simplify this process. This
exercise will introduce you to your virtual SAMPLING tool, which creates a sampling transect. In
this type of sampling, the investigator establishes a line of fixed length and counts the organisms of
interest along (or within a fixed distance from) that line.

[ 1 ] Your first task will be to quantify the barnacles’ vertical distribution. Select the Counting Barnacles
exercise from the SELECT AN EXERCISE button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen
and click the STEP 7 button twice to run the simulation for 14 days.

[ 2 ] The SAMPLING tool is at the far right of your Tools panel; it looks like a red and white bordered
grid. Select it, and then move your cursor over to the rock face. The cursor determines the
lower boundary of your transect. Click a few places along the rock face to see how the transect
is established. Observe that the transect height is 0.2 m. Your sampling results are displayed
numerically and graphically in the Sampling Results panel to the right. Once you understand
how to place the transect and read the results, click the CLEAR SAMPLES button at the bottom of
the Sampling Results panel.

[ 3 ] Quantify the distribution of barnacles at approximately 1-m intervals up the rock face, starting
with a transect whose top edge is around the 1 meter mark.

[ 3.1 ] Record your results in the first (Sample 1) row of Data Table 1, below.

DATA TABLE 1: VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BARNACLE

DEPTH AT SAMPLE BOTTOM


1M 2M 3M 4M 5M
SAMPLE S C S C S C S C S C
1
2
3
Range
Average

[ 4 ] As you’ve likely noticed, the number of barnacles at any one place on the rock changes over time,
even if the overall distribution pattern is consistent. Just like real intertidal systems, the simulation
includes random variability. A proper sampling procedure would sample several rock faces and
use the average and range of values to describe the barnacle distribution. You can achieve this by
re-running the simulation and sampling again—each run is the equivalent of looking at a different
rock face.

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[ 5 ] RESET the simulation, then run for 14 days and repeat your sampling. Enter the data in the table.
Repeat this process for a third sample; then fill in the range and average values.

[ 5.1 ] Using your numerical results, describe the vertical distribution of barnacles on the
rock face.

[ 6 ] RESET the simulation to clear the rock face. Another interesting pattern to quantify is how the
number of organisms in one place changes over time.

[ 6.1 ] Select a height between 1 and 4 m that you think would be interesting to sample over
time. Based on your hypothesis and the observations you’ve made so far, how do you
predict the distribution of the two species would change over time at the depth you
will be sampling? Explain.

[ 7 ] Using the STEP 1 button, advance the simulation two days.

[ 7.1 ] Record the number of individuals of each species in the first (Sample 1) row of Data
Table 2 below.

[ 8 ] Then advance the simulation 2 more days and record your data. Continue until the Sample 1 row
is complete. [Optional] If you want to conduct more thorough sampling, you can repeat your
measurements with an additional simulation run and record data in the Sample 2 row of Table 2.

DATA TABLE 2: CHANGE IN BARNACLE NUMBER OVER TIME AT _______ M

DAY
SAMPLE 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
S C S C S C S C S C S C S C
1
2

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[ 8.1 ] Using your numerical results, describe the temporal pattern of barnacle distributions
you observed.

[ 8.2 ] Were your expectations from Question 6.1 met? Explain, using numerical results.

[ 8.3 ] In what ways do you think your results would have been different if you had sampled
at a different height on the rock? Explain.

[ 9 ] In light of the observations you’ve made in this exercise, do you need to revise your hypothesis,
either to change your explanation or to make it more specific? If so, write your revised hypothesis
below.

[ 9.1 ] Revised hypothesis:

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

Exercise 3: Wet and Dry


This exercise introduces some of Connell’s experimental approaches. You will apply various techniques
to investigate how individuals of the two species interact with one another and how they interact
with their physical environment. (Later on in the lab, you’ll get to design and conduct your own
experiments.)

[ 1 ] Select the Wet and Dry exercise from the SELECT AN EXERCISE button in the upper
left-hand corner of the screen. First you will conduct a classic exclusion experiment—keeping
one species off the rock and seeing what happens with the other. Exclusion experiments allow
researchers to examine the effects of the physical environment alone and are often a first step in
examining distribution patterns.

[ 1.1 ] What do you predict will happen to Chthamalus if you exclude Semibalanus from
settling on the rock? Explain.

[ 2 ] To prevent Semibalanus from settling, click on the EXCLUDE SEMIBALANUS button in the
Exclusions panel on the right. RUN for around 28 days.

[ 2.1 ] In the absence of Semibalanus, at what height in your plot does Chthamalus settle?
Give its distribution range in meters.

[ 2.2 ] Did you predict correctly? Explain.

[ 3 ] Another important tool for studying species distributions is direct observation of species
interactions. Specifically, Connell wanted to know if individuals of either species commonly killed
individuals of the other species. Barnacles kill one another by overgrowing (growing on top

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

of ) and undercutting (wedging underneath and displacing) each other. In the simulation, one
barnacle kills another if the first overlaps the second and the second disappears.

[ 3.1 ] Based on your hypothesis, do you predict that Semibalanus is capable of overgrowing
and killing Chthamalus? Explain.

[ 4 ] Uncheck the EXCLUDE SEMIBALANUS button so that both barnacles species can settle again.
Then click the RESET button to clear your rock of barnacles. RUN the simulation for 14 days to
allow barnacles to settle.

[ 5 ] Select an individual Chthamalus from the 0.5–1.6m range to observe. Use the STEP 1 button to
advance the simulation slowly as you observe what happens. If your Chthamalus is overgrown,
select another to observe. Continue your observations for at least 20 days.

[ 5.1 ] Is Semibalanus capable of overgrowing and killing Chthamalus? Explain.

[ 5.2 ] Did you predict correctly? Explain.

[ 6 ] Another common experimental technique in ecology is transplantation—moving individuals from


one area to another without removing all individuals of the other species that might be present.
With mobile species, this can be extraordinarily difficult. For Connell, transplanting barnacles
meant chiseling up a piece of rock with barnacles on it and tethering the rock in a new spot. It will
be even easier for you!

[ 7 ] Click the RESET button. Look at the selection of Tools to the lower right of the rock. The fifth
button from the left—the one with the picture of barnacles on it—is the ADD ORGANISMS tool.
By clicking on the drop-down arrow, you can select a species for transplantation. For now, click
on Semibalanus (the default button). Move your cursor back to the rock, and then click, hold, and
drag the cursor anywhere on the rock to transplant Semibalanus (individuals of either species that
were already established are removed during this process). Your transplantation area is marked
with a rectangle for easier viewing. Try this a few times.

[ 7.1 ] Based on your hypothesis, what do you predict will happen if you transplant a group
of Semibalanus to a section of rock in the 1.5–2.5m range, with Chthamalus present?

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

[ 8 ] Click the RESET button to clear the rock. Run the simulation for 14–28 days. Use the
ADD ORGANISMS tool to create a patch of 40–50 Semibalanus in the 1.5–2.5m range. Run the
simulation and observe what happens.

[ 8.1 ] What happened to the transplanted barnacles?

[ 8.2 ] Did you predict correctly? Explain.

[ 9 ] Just as you can transplant a group of barnacles to a new place on the rock amidst other barnacles,
you can remove some individuals from an area that still contains other individuals. This kind of
small-scale exclusion experiment can be very informative, and the simulation allows you to conduct
a few different variations of it.

[ 9.1 ] Based on your hypothesis, if you cleared an area in the center of the rock face, do
you predict that Semibalanus will settle in the new open space (i.e., will any land and
attach to the rock in that space)? Why or why not?

[ 9.2 ] Based on your hypothesis, if any Semibalanus do settle in the new open space, do you
predict that they would persist there (i.e., stick around for a while)? Explain.

[ 10 ] Click the RESET button, then run the simulation for 14–28 days. Find and click the skull and
crossbones button (the DELETE ORGANISMS tool) next to the ADD ORGANISMS tool. Move
the cursor to a spot roughly in the center of the rock, then click, hold, and drag to create a “dead

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

zone” approximately 1 m square. When you release the cursor, all organisms in that area will be
removed, but the surrounding individuals will be left in place.

[ 11 ] RUN the simulation long enough for a clear result to emerge.

[ 11.1 ] What did you observe?

[ 11.2 ] Did you predict correctly? Explain.

[ 12 ] Another way you can use the DELETE ORGANISMS tool is to remove individuals one at a time
from an area. This allows you to create new spacing patterns, for example, or to remove individuals
of one species from an area, allowing individuals of another species to grow there. You can try this
technique on your own if it is useful for testing your hypothesis.

[ 13 ] Recall the barnacle distribution pattern you’re trying to explain. In light of the observations you’ve
made throughout this exercise, do you need to revise your hypothesis for why the two barnacle
species are distributed as they are, either to change your explanation or to make it more specific?
If so, write your revised hypothesis below.

[ 13.1 ] Revised hypothesis:

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

Exercise 4: On Your Own


Now it’s your turn. You have developed a hypothesis based on a number of different observations
and experiments. Your job now is to use your new tools to further test and refine your hypothesis. To
accomplish this, you will make a set of predictions derived from your hypothesis, design and conduct
a series of experiments to test your predictions, record and analyze your data, and write a report based
on your findings. You might want to do each experiment a few times to make sure that your results
aren’t due to chance. If you want to modify your original hypotheses and experiments based on the
results you have so far, that is fine as well, but be sure to indicate your new hypotheses in your report.

[ 1 ] Select the On Your Own exercise from the SELECT AN EXERCISE button in the upper left-
hand corner of the screen .

[ 2 ] To organize your work, begin by examining your hypothesis and deriving predictions from it.
Remember that predictions generally take the form of if-then statements: “If my hypothesis is
correct and I (perform this experiment/make this observation), then I should find (find a specific
result). Or: “If my hypothesis is correct, then I should find (specific result) when I (perform this
experiment/make this observation). You, of course, have to fill in the experiment, observation, and
result!

[ 2.1 ] List your initial predictions here:

[ 3 ] Your predictions themselves indicate the experiments/observations you will perform. Before
you conduct your experiments/observations, make sure you have thought about experimental
controls, replication and/or sample size, and how you will record your data.

[ 3.1 ] Briefly describe your experiments/observations. On a separate sheet or sheets of


paper, prepare any data tables you will need. Be sure to label them correctly.

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[ 4 ] Once you’ve conducted your experiments, analyze your data in light of your predictions and, in
turn, your hypothesis. Do you need to revise your hypothesis? Can you identify other experiments
and/or observations that would help clarify it? If time permits, revise the hypothesis and test it
with the new experiments and/or observations. If not, include them as potential future studies in
your report.

[ 5 ] Write your report. Be sure to consider how best to display your data (tables, graphs) so you can
use the data to support your findings. Identify new questions that may have popped up as you
conducted your experiments as well as new research that might provide additional information
about this system.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

Exercise 5: Snails Rule


You may have noticed a LIBRARY button for Nucella, a species which has not yet appeared on the rock
face. Nucella is a species of snail that crawls around on the rock, eating barnacles. It does not exist in
all locations along the Scottish coast, but where it does exist it can have a significant effect on the
distribution of barnacles. This exercise explores why.

[ 1 ] Select Snails Rule from the SELECT AN EXERCISE button in the upper left-hand corner of
the screen. Run the simulation for 14–28 days.

[ 1.1 ] What do you observe about the distribution of Nucella on the rock face? Be as specific
as possible.

[ 1.2 ] How is the distribution of barnacles different in the presence of Nucella than it was
when Nucella was absent?

[ 1.3 ] Develop and present one or two hypotheses to explain your observations:

[ 2 ] You have available all the tools you’ve worked with before, as well as the ability to exclude,
transplant, and sample Nucella. Use these tools to test your hypothesis and write a report about
your findings, following the basic instructions from the previous exercise.

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Graded Questions
[ 1 ] Use the SELECT AN EXERCISE button to launch “Graded Questions”.

[ 2 [ Enter your answers for each of the questions and click the SUBMIT button.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

Wrap-Up
The intertidal area of the ocean has been an excellent place to find out how species interact with each
other and with their physical environment, and how these interactions determine species distributions.
Connell’s work with barnacles provided some of the first really good field evidence that competition
between species can be important. It also showed very clearly that there are tradeoffs in the way
species are constructed. One barnacle may be able to out compete another, but can’t survive in as
many environments. This type of trade-off is quite common. You never find a single species that is
good at everything.

Another lesson we learn from this lab is that just looking is often not enough. You must also do
experiments. Without the experiments that you conducted here, you couldn’t know whether the two
species of barnacles lived where they did simply because one liked air and the other liked water, or
whether they actually competed with each other. Only through experimentation were you able
to figure out which hypothesis is right. This is true in general—it’s very hard to do ecology without
experiments, and if you don’t experiment, then many times you will arrive at the wrong answer.

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SimBio Virtual Labs® | The Barnacle Zone

References
This lab was loosely based on the following paper:

Connell, J. H. 1961. The influence of interspecific competition and other factors on the distribution
of the barnacle Chthamalus stellatus. Ecology 42: 710–723.

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