Enhanced transport of nutrients powered by microscale flows of the self-spinning dinoflagellate Symbiodinium sp.

ABSTRACT: The metabolism of a living organism (e.g. bacteria, algae, zooplankton) requires a continuous uptake of nutrients from the surrounding environment. However, within local spatial scales, nutrients are quickly used up under dense concentrations of organisms. Here, we report that self-spinning dinoflagellates Symbiodinium sp. (clade E) generate a microscale flow that mitigates competition and enhances the uptake of nutrients from the surrounding environment. Our experimental and theoretical results reveal that this incessant active behavior enhances transport by approximately 80-fold when compared with Brownian motion in living fluids. We found that the tracer ensemble probability density function for displacement is time-dependent, but consists of a Gaussian core and robust exponential tails

SUBMITTER: Zhu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6503948 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature