Graham Doherty, Westminster College
Biology
The Great Salt Lake is home to Artemia Franciscana, a species otherwise known as brine shrimp. These halophiles are able to live in extreme environments that have higher than average salt concentrations. Brine shrimp live their entire life cycles in the Great Salt Lake and can be found in both the north and south arm of the lake. Currently, the genetic information regarding the brine shrimp populations at different locations in the lake is underdeveloped. The Artemia populations live in different microenvironments throughout the lake with different physical characteristics and barriers between one another. The physical environment also affects the salt concentration in each microenvironment. Other studies have shown that the increased salinity of an environment accelerates the rate of change in the mitochondrial genome. We feel that different salinity levels in each microenvironment will create different amounts of genetic variation. Our goal is to determine if the distribution of genetic variation is different at different sites in the Great Salt Lake Artemia population.