IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v4y2013i1d10.1038_ncomms3148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Turbulence drives microscale patches of motile phytoplankton

Author

Listed:
  • William M. Durham

    (Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue
    University of Oxford, South Parks Road)

  • Eric Climent

    (Institut de Mécanique des Fluides, Université de Toulouse, INPT–UPS–CNRS, Allée du Pr. Camille Soula)

  • Michael Barry

    (Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue)

  • Filippo De Lillo

    (DICCA, Università di Genova, via Montallegro 1
    Università di Torino, via P. Giuria 1)

  • Guido Boffetta

    (Università di Torino, via P. Giuria 1)

  • Massimo Cencini

    (Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via dei Taurini 19)

  • Roman Stocker

    (Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue)

Abstract

Patchiness plays a fundamental role in phytoplankton ecology by dictating the rate at which individual cells encounter each other and their predators. The distribution of motile phytoplankton species is often considerably more patchy than that of non-motile species at submetre length scales, yet the mechanism generating this patchiness has remained unknown. Here we show that strong patchiness at small scales occurs when motile phytoplankton are exposed to turbulent flow. We demonstrate experimentally that Heterosigma akashiwo forms striking patches within individual vortices and prove with a mathematical model that this patchiness results from the coupling between motility and shear. When implemented within a direct numerical simulation of turbulence, the model reveals that cell motility can prevail over turbulent dispersion to create strong fractal patchiness, where local phytoplankton concentrations are increased more than 10-fold. This ‘unmixing’ mechanism likely enhances ecological interactions in the plankton and offers mechanistic insights into how turbulence intensity impacts ecosystem productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • William M. Durham & Eric Climent & Michael Barry & Filippo De Lillo & Guido Boffetta & Massimo Cencini & Roman Stocker, 2013. "Turbulence drives microscale patches of motile phytoplankton," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-7, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3148
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3148
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3148
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms3148?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Tousheng & Yu, Chengfeng & Zhang, Kui & Liu, Xingyu & Zhen, Jiulong & Wang, Lan, 2023. "Complex pattern dynamics and synchronization in a coupled spatiotemporal plankton system with zooplankton vertical migration," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P2).
    2. Bouderbala, Ilhem & El Saadi, Nadjia & Bah, Alassane & Auger, Pierre, 2019. "A simulation study on how the resource competition and anti-predator cooperation impact the motile-phytoplankton groups’ formation under predation stress," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 391(C), pages 16-28.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.