Flow disturbances generated by feeding and swimming zooplankton.

ABSTRACT: Interactions between planktonic organisms, such as detection of prey, predators, and mates, are often mediated by fluid signals. Consequently, many plankton predators perceive their prey from the fluid disturbances that it generates when it feeds and swims. Zooplankton should therefore seek to minimize the fluid disturbance that they produce. By means of particle image velocimetry, we describe the fluid disturbances produced by feeding and swimming in zooplankton with diverse propulsion mechanisms and ranging from 10-µm flagellates to greater than millimeter-sized copepods. We show that zooplankton, in which feeding and swimming are separate processes, produce flow disturbances during swimming with a much faster spatial attenuation (velocity u varies with distance r as u ∝ r(-3) to r(-4))

SUBMITTER: Kiorboe T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4136613 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature