Along with getting this year’s cover image for CJZ, Lexy has another photo competing for this year’s Science Exposed prize from NSERC. Vote for her photo here!

Here’s the details:

The observation of a seemingly simple feeding event can provide new insights into how sea slugs navigate changing ocean conditions. Pictured here is the sea slug Hermissenda crassicornis on an orange cup coral, with visible damage exposing the coral’s white skeleton. These slugs were previously thought to feed mostly on hydroids (small marine animals related to jellyfish), but my research suggests they may actually prefer orange cup coral, as shown here. This discovery is part of our work to understand how these sea slugs find food in environments with variable tidal flow and strong wave action, which can disrupt the odor plumes they might otherwise follow. While at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on the West Coast of Canada, we took some video recordings of these slugs in their natural habitat. By analyzing these recordings, we are uncovering new behavioural patterns that may help explain how they successfully forage in such dynamic ocean conditions.