Lawrence Chong and Nicholas DaCosta

Abstract

Thalassia
testudinum, which is commonly grazed by
Tripneustes ventricosus,
is located throughout the Caribbean. Discovery Bay, Jamaica is home
to nitrogen-enriched Thalassia
testudinum while in other areas of the
Caribbean the Thalassia testudinum
is not nitrogen-enriched. The main focus of this experiment was to
see whether or not Tripneustes
ventricosus would prefer to consume the
nutrient rich Thalassia testudinum
found in the lagoon of Discovery Bay over the Thalassia
testudinum found outside the lagoon.
Tripneustes ventricosus
were collected for this experiment as well as Thalassia
testudinum from inside and outside the
lagoon of Discovery Bay and were put into artificial environments
designed to test their preferences. After 3
trials, with trials 2 and 3 having a no-light factor, our data
indicated that Tripneustes ventricosus
does have a preference over their food consumption and that is they
would prefer to consume nutrient rich Thalassia testudinum.