Instrumentation Laboratory Project Page

Project: Grazing Wheel

Department: Zoology

Primary Investigator: Dr. Craig Williamson

Purpose of Project: The grazing wheel enables researchers in the Williamson Ecology of UV Laboratory to conduct feeding experiments using zooplankton and phytoplankton species.  Zooplankton and a food source are placed in glass bottles and secured on the wheel.  As the wheel rotates, food particles that might normally settle to the bottom of a flask or beaker remain suspended and available for zooplankton feeding during experiments.  Past experiments using a grazing wheel have looked at the ingestion and infectivity of pathogens and clearance rates by Daphnia.

IL Comment: User brought in a prototype unit that they'd made themselves at another university. IL developed a new design that would be more reliable, sturdier, the sample wheel could be easily removed, and that would fit inside their environmental chambers.

Cost to researcher: $247.64 for two. User supplied the motors.