Developing a Snail Model for Behavior Toxicity Evaluations

Abstract

                As humans expand further and further, we constantly are increasing the impact we have on the environment, especially factoring in how often people pollute and contaminate nature. We often don’t understand the full effect we have on our environments and the organisms living there. One example of something we don’t understand is heavy metal contamination and how it affects the organisms in contaminated areas. This is a difficult task since there can be tremendous amounts of variations in behaviors of even the same species. This study will help us set a baseline for how two snail species react to food cues. We will expose these snails to food cues and measure the time it takes them to find food and their general activity levels. This will let us have a standard to later compare contaminated snails to in the future and further gauge the effects of heavy metals on snails.