My initial idea for this project was to see what type of species would in habit an area near  freshwater input. After more thought and discussion my professors and I decided that it may be too  difficult to find an input site in the short amount of time I had to do this project.  

     So instead of  freshwater input I turned to moisture in general and freshwater that falls from the sky.  On both of  my trips to the rocky intertidal in Nahant it had been raining. Every surface was moist, which may it  extra fun to walk around on. I observed that there were many common periwinkles above the water  level of their pools on algae, foraging. These observations supported my hypothesis that these  mollusks make use of moisture from rain and from the tides.

     The first experimental design was not very controlled, but I record results that supported my  prediction.  The L. littorea that I selected moved around on my rock no matter what I sprayed it  with. This set up, however, was flawed. How was I to tell if the snail was moving because of the  moisture from the spray or the moisture already on the rock? It was impossible at the time to find a  dry rock to try on. This would be my first correction in design. To go to Nahant when it is not raining  and spray the samples with fresh water. 

     The next attempt to gather data was in a laboratory setting. I sprayed snails in a clean dry bin and  got different results from when I was in the field.  The snails only moved when they were exposed to  salt water.  This experiment was controlled, but still may not reflect the true nature of the behavior  of the snails in their natural habitat.

     The final go at this experiment occurred on site, but with the same methods as employed in  Bermuda. I used lined Petri dishes and collected a group of L. littorea and partially submerged them  in fresh and then salt water.  I recorded the same results as in the lab test.