2019 | Switzerland | Zamir Borojevic

Tardigrades Under the Influence of Acidic and Alkaline Solutions, and UV-C Radiation

Water issue adressed: Too little

Tardigrades are very small animals who belong to the taxon of Ecdysozoa, and are found in most water bodies, sediment and moss. They have developed the unique ability to react to rapidly changing environmental conditions by changing their physical characteristics and taking on different stages of resistance. Climate change not only has an influence on temperatures around the world, but it also affects the physical characteristics of different waters, which results in need of adaptation for all organisms living in aquatic ecosystems. The aim is to investigate the tolerance and vitality of Hypsibius exemplaris under the influence of different pH values and different dosages of UV-C light and thereby create a diagram for their tolerance and vitality for each experiment.

This is how I came up with the idea for this project:

I'm fascinated by the ability of tardigrades to withstand extreme environmental stress and realized that they are hardly researched animals despite their incredible ability, the cryptobiosis. I wanted to research their behavior in situations of different environmental stress, thus providing further information on tardigrades.

CONTACT WATERTANK

Ania Andersch

Programme manager ania.andersch@siwi.org +46 8 121 360 59