A new theoretical performance landscape for suction feeding reveals adaptive kinematics in a natural population of reef damselfish.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how organismal traits determine performance and, ultimately, fitness is a fundamental goal of evolutionary eco-morphology. However, multiple traits can interact in non-linear and context-dependent ways to affect performance, hindering efforts to place natural populations with respect to performance peaks or valleys. Here, we used an established mechanistic model of suction-feeding performance (SIFF) derived from hydrodynamic principles to estimate a theoretical performance landscape for zooplankton prey capture. This performance space can be used to predict prey capture performance for any combination of six morphological and kinematic trait values. We then mapped in situ high-speed video observations of suction feeding in a natural population of a coral reef zooplanktivore,

SUBMITTER: Holzman R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9339911 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature