Meeting Abstract

51.3  Monday, Jan. 5  Hydrodynamic imaging of a self-propelling zooplankton prey by the lateral line system of a fish: A computational fluid dynamics study JIANG, H.*; GROSENBAUGH, M.A.; JANSSEN, J.; STRICKLER, J.R.; Dept. of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543; Dept. of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543; Great Lakes WATER Institute, 600 East Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204; Great Lakes WATER Institute, 600 East Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204 hsjiang@whoi.edu

Consisting of spatially distributed canal and/or superficial neuromasts, the mechanosensory lateral line system enables fishes to detect various water currents at their body surface. A fish may use its lateral line to form hydrodynamic images of its immediate vicinity, reflecting the spatial-temporal hydrodynamic signatures due to nearby prey, predator, conspecifics, obstacles and etc. Previous observations have provided ample evidence that freely swimming zooplankton preys can be detected by the lateral line system. However, through many previous studies using dipole-source potential flow modeling, we are most familiar with the spatial-temporal hydrodynamic signal patterns of a vibrating sphere (a rather artificial stimulus). Here, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we numerically simulate the hydrodynamic flow field around a self-propelling zooplankton prey that jumps from rest and is nearby a fish body. We quantify the hydrodynamic images formed at the lateral line of the fish due to jumping of the prey. We highlight the differences between a self-propelling zooplankton prey and a vibrating sphere in terms of the spatial-temporal hydrodynamic signal patterns.