Turbulent Fluid Acceleration Generates Clusters of Gyrotactic Microorganisms
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De Lillo-2014-Turbulent fluid acceleration.pdf
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Author(s)
De Lillo, Filippo
Cencini, Massimo
Durham, William M.
Barry, Michael
Stocker, Roman
Climent, Eric
Boffetta, Guido
Date Issued
January 2014
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
De Lillo, Filippo, Massimo Cencini, William M. Durham, Michael Barry, Roman Stocker, Eric Climent, and Guido Boffetta. “Turbulent Fluid Acceleration Generates Clusters of Gyrotactic Microorganisms.” Physical Review Letters 112, no. 4 (January 2014). © 2014 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The motility of microorganisms is often biased by gradients in physical and chemical properties of their environment, with myriad implications on their ecology. Here we show that fluid acceleration reorients gyrotactic plankton, triggering small-scale clustering. We experimentally demonstrate this phenomenon by studying the distribution of the phytoplankton Chlamydomonas augustae within a rotating tank and find it to be in good agreement with a new, generalized model of gyrotaxis. When this model is implemented in a direct numerical simulation of turbulent flow, we find that fluid acceleration generates multifractal plankton clustering, with faster and more stable cells producing stronger clustering. By producing accumulations in high-vorticity regions, this process is fundamentally different from clustering by gravitational acceleration, expanding the range of mechanisms by which turbulent flows can impact the spatial distribution of active suspensions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.044502
