Meeting Abstract

78-1  Monday, Jan. 6 08:00 – 08:15  Manse and Tail: Flow structure and morphological constraints of the filtration feeding mechanisms by giant larvaceans HOOVER, AP*; KATIJA, K; The University of Akron; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ahoover1@uakron.edu

Giant larvaceans (Bathochordaeus) are found throughout the world’s midwater region and play an important role in the carbon cycling of these ecosystems. Even though they inhabit the mesopelagic region, larvaceans still manage to be successful filter feeders, with filtration rates of as high as 80 L/hr. This feat is accomplished with the help of a mucus house structure that is built and discarded daily. The house structure allows the larvaceans to direct flows and particles to the filters and mouth of the organism. The flows in the house are driven by the motion of the larvacean tail, which is located at the end of the house filter and oscillates due to a complementary set of muscles on both sides of the tail. This talk will examine this fluid dynamics surrounding this pumping mechanism by using numerical models and experiments to explore the interplay between the tail, the house, and the resulting fluid dynamics that drive this pump. The fully-coupled fluid structure interaction problem is solved using an adaptive and parallelized version of the immersed boundary method (IBAMR).