Do urchins flip out in hot water?
Contributed by: Erin de Leon Sanchez (she/her) X: @erin_dls
Keywords: Abiotic stressors, Animals, Aquatic, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Climate change, Conservation, Disturbance, Environmental change, Experimental, Filipino-American, Imposter syndrome, Lab, Marine, North America, Organismal biology, Person of Color, Physiological/organismal ecology, Population ecology, Societal Relevance, Woman
Slides
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Resources
There is a Data Nugget activity about this research that explores the research and dataset. Do urchins flip out in hot water?
Notes
Slide 1: Researcher’s Background
Erin de Leon Sanchez is a marine ecologist in the Hofmann Lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is investigating the impacts of marine heatwaves on the ecologically and commercially important red sea urchin, Mesocentrotus franciscanus. She focuses on the adult urchins and how marine heatwaves may affect their gonad development and reproductive timing. Erin is also investigating the role of transgenerational effects as a mechanism for buffering offspring from projected ocean temperatures.
PB: Why did you become a biologist?
EdLS: I became a marine biologist because I want to help mitigate the consequences that climate change has on our oceans and the communities that rely on them.
PB: What is your favorite part about your job?
EdLS: My favorite part of my job is working with my undergraduate mentees. I love watching them grow into amazing scientists!
PB: What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are?
EdLS: An obstacle that I faced during my STEM career, and still face today, is imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is defined as the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills. Sometimes I am the only woman of color in STEM spaces, which makes it easy for me to feel like I don’t belong here or that I didn’t earn my spot in STEM based on my academic achievements.
PB: What advice do you have for aspiring biologists?
EdLS: It is okay to make mistakes! Mistakes will help you learn and grow as a biologist. Also, never be afraid to ask questions. Questions will help you, and others around you, learn and get a better understanding of the material or task at hand. Lastly, be curious, courageous, creative, and have fun!
PB: Do you have any aspects of your identity that you feel are underrepresented, marginalized, or minoritized in STEM or society? If so, please list them here.
EdLS: I’m a first-generation Filipino-American woman.
Slide 2: Research Overview
Take home message of study
Erin wanted to test whether marine heatwaves could be stressing urchins and whether being acclimatized to warmer temperatures would help urchins handle the stress of marine heatwaves. She found that compared to urchins acclimated to normal ocean temperatures, urchins that are acclimatized to marine heatwave temperatures showed improved responses. However, if temperatures are too extreme, urchins are much slower regardless of the temperature they were acclimated to.
Study system
Urchins are ectotherms, so their internal temperature is moderated by the temperature around them. Periods of unusual warming in the ocean are called marine heatwaves. During these marine heatwaves, water gets 3-5 degrees hotter than normal. That might not sound like much, but for an urchin, it is a lot. Erin collected urchins off the California coast near Santa Barbara for her experiments in the lab. By conducting the experiments in the lab, she is able to control the temperatures that urchins experience.
Slide 3: Key Research Points
Main figure
By looking at a simple behavior associated with urchins’ righting instinct, Erin can gauge how the heat is affecting how stressed out the urchins are. When flipped over, healthy urchins have a righting instinct to orient themselves “the right way” using their sticky tube feet to flip back over. Erin timed this response in urchins at 3 different temperatures (15, 18, 21 degrees Celsius). Prior to this test, she had also acclimatized the urchins at different temperatures – normal ocean temperature (15 degrees C) and marine heatwave temperature (18 degrees C). She found that urchins tested at 15 and 18 degrees took a similar amount of time to right themselves, but at 21 degrees, they were much slower, indicating stress. Another key result is that the urchins acclimated to the marine heat wave temperature (18 degrees C) took less time to flip back over than the urchins acclimated to the normal ocean temperature.
Societal Relevance
As the ocean continues to warm and the frequency of marine heat waves increases, it is important to see how organisms respond to environmental stressors. The data show that in really hot water, urchins are slower to turn over. This will make them more vulnerable to predation during extreme marine heatwaves and more sea urchins will get eaten. This could lead to a decrease in the urchin population.
