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A barnacle’s life

For his graduate research, WHOI postdoctoral investigator Jonathan Blythe studied the intertidal barnacle Semibalanus balanoides at Gardiner Beach in Woods Hole. He focused on the transition between the larval and adult stages of the barnacle lifecycle and the creature’s ability to cope with varying environmental conditions such as wind and wave action. “It appears that barnacles have evolved to compete for suitable habitat and have mechanisms to cope with seasonally varying environmental conditions in the benthic habitat,” Blythe writes on his research web page.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)