Upper Thermal Limits (UTL) experiments on the Antarctic spirorbid Romanchella perrieri

UTLs were used to determine whether whole animal acclimation had occurred in R. perrieri on heated settlement panels in the Antarctic. The panels were placed at 15m depth at two sites (South Cove and North Cove) near Rothera Research Station, Adelaide Island, Antarctic Peninsula (67.06861 S, 68.125 W). Heated and non-heated panels (one each of control, +1, +2) from the South Cove and North Cove sites colonised by R. perrieri were transferred to a 60 L jacketed tank with aerated sea water at the same temperature as the ambient sea water (0 degrees Celsius) and connected to a thermocirculator (Grant Instruments Ltd, Cambridge, UK). The temperature was raised at 1 degree Celsius h-1 with the temperature limit of each animal noted when they no longer responded to tactile stimuli.#

Funding was provided by the NERC grant NE/J007501/1.

本研究借助上限热极限（Upper Thermal Limits, UTLs），探究南极地区附着于加热定植板上的R. perrieri是否发生了整只动物的热驯化过程。实验定植板被布设至南极半岛阿德莱德岛罗瑟拉研究站附近两个站点（南湾与北湾）的15米水深处，坐标为南纬67.06861°、西经68.125°。从南湾与北湾站点采集的、已被R. perrieri定植的加热与非加热定植板（含对照组、+1℃组、+2℃组各1组）被转移至容积60 L的夹套罐中，罐内充入与环境海水温度一致（0 ℃）的充气海水，并连接至恒温循环器（英国剑桥Grant仪器有限公司）。实验以每小时1 ℃的速率升高罐内水温，并记录每只受试动物不再对触觉刺激产生反应时的温度极限。

本研究由NERC（自然环境研究委员会，Natural Environment Research Council）资助，资助编号为NE/J007501/1。