Introduction L. variegatus, the species of sea urchin egg and sperm used in the HHMI Biology Lab, are found in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, flourishing in standard temperatures of 18℃-23℃ (Bryne 2007). Recently, climate change has become an increasing global issue, as industrial activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, produces CO2 gas that traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This entrapment is causing the melting of ice caps, resulting in ocean cooling and warming in varied areas, thus affecting marine life (Climate Hot Map). Increased and decreased environmental temperatures have a significant affect on sea urchin development. Specifically high temperatures can have detrimental affects on development, as it is known that high temperatures denature proteins, changing their shape and affecting overall function (Bryne 2007). We tested fertilized sea urchin embryos at various…show more content… variegatus) by first putting 0.5-3 uL of “dry sperm” in 1 mL of artificial seawater, and the fertilizing 30 mL of eggs (6 mL per petri dish) with 200 uL of sperm per dish using pipet. We ensured that each dish was completely covered with liquid by adding 100 mL of seawater. We proceeded to wait five minutes for fertilization to complete and the counted the number of fertilized versus unfertilized eggs, establishing a ratio. Next, we set the temperature of incubators available in the lab at 15℃, 18℃, 21℃, 25℃, 30℃, and 37℃ to allow the search urchins to develop over a three day period so that we could observe the affects of varying temperatures. The control group was 21℃, and was left out in the room for standard room temperature. We labeled each petri dish and inserted them in their corresponding incubators. We then observed the development of the embryos in each petri dish under the microscope at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours, and took pictures for data collection. These steps were repeated several