Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Measurements of trajectories and spatial distributions of diatoms (Coscinodiscus spp.) at dissipation scales of turbulence

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experiments in Fluids Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Diatoms are a group of photosynthetic microorganisms that play important roles in aquatic food webs and global biogeochemical cycles. They reside in the upper layer of oceans and lakes, and their interactions with the dissipation scales of turbulence govern a variety of processes, such as nutrient acquisition, prey–predator interactions, and aggregation. Interactions of cells with turbulence may also alter vertical motions and spatial distributions. However, observations of these interactions remain scarce because of the difficulty of generating ecologically relevant flows in the lab or tracking microscopic cells in the field. Here, we present an experimental system capable of measuring trajectories and spatial distributions of live diatom cells in turbulence. The small-volume turbulence tank uses stochastic forcing to restrict mean flow while producing homogeneous turbulence statistics at relatively high Reynolds number. Individual cell trajectories are tracked in three dimensions with a volumetric particle imager that uses the principle of defocused imaging combined with a double-pinhole aperture mask to obtain particle positions in three dimensions using a single camera. We conducted experiments at two different turbulence intensities and our results show that while root-mean-square velocities of diatoms are similar to those of tracer particles, their spatial distributions indicate enhanced clustering at the dissipation scales in comparison with tracer particles. This clustering behaviour is surprising both because diatom cells are characterised by a very low Stokes number and because clustering decreases when the turbulence intensity (and dissipation rate) increases. Several mechanisms could explain this result, including cell shape effects and active regulation of cell density in response to the ambient turbulence.

Graphic abstract

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amato A, Dell’Aquila G, Musacchia F, Annunziata R, Ugarte A, Maillet N, Carbone A, Ribera d’Alcalà M, Sanges R, Iudicone D, Ferrante MI (2017) Marine diatoms change their gene expression profile when exposed to microscale turbulence under nutrient replete conditions. Sci Rep 7:3826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armbrust EV (2009) The life of diatoms in the world’s oceans. Nature 459:185–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arrieta J, Jeanneret R, Roig P, Tuval I (2020) On the fate of sinking diatoms: the transport of active buoyancy-regulating cells in the ocean. Philos Trans R Soc A Math Phys Eng Sci 378:20190529

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Ayres S (2017) Cell density (mass per unit volume) of diatom cells and chains in relation to their size, growth, and nutritional condition. Master of science thesis, University of Maine

  • Bellani G, Variano EA (2014) Homogeneity and isotropy in a laboratory turbulent flow. Exp Fluids 55:1646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borgnino M, Arrieta J, Boffetta G, De Lillo F, Tuval I (2019) Turbulence induces clustering and segregation of non-motile, buoyancy-regulating phytoplankton. J R Soc Interface 16:20190324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowler C, Vardi A, Allen AE (2010) Oceanographic and biogeochemical insights from diatom genomes. Annu Rev Mar Sci 2:333–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchhave P, George WK, Lumley JL (1979) The measurement of turbulence with the laser-doppler anemometer. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 11:443–503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dell’Aquila G, Ferrante MI, Gherardi M, Lagomarsino MC, d’Alcalà MR, Iudicone D, Amato A (2017) Nutrient consumption and chain tuning in diatoms exposed to storm-like turbulence. Sci Rep 7:1828

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Clos KT, Karp-Boss L, Villareal TA, Gemmell BJ (2019) Coscinodiscus wailesiimutes unsteady sinking in dark conditions. Biol Lett 15:20180816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Clos KT, Karp-Boss L, Gemmell BJ (2021) Diatoms rapidly alter sinking behavior in response to changing nutrient concentrations. Limnol Oceanogr 66:892–900

  • Efron B, Tibshirani RJ (1993) An introduction to the bootstrap. Chapman & Hall, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gemmell BJ, Oh G, Buskey EJ, Villareal TA (2016) Dynamic sinking behaviour in marine phytoplankton: rapid changes in buoyancy may aid in nutrient uptake. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 283:20161126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie DT (1996) Exact numerical simulation of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process and its integral. Phys Rev E 54:2084–2091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guadayol Ò, Peters F, Stiansen JE, Marrasé C, Lohrmann A (2009) Evaluation of oscillating grids and orbital shakers as means to generate isotropic and homogeneous small-scale turbulence in laboratory enclosures commonly used in plankton studies. Limnol Oceanogr Methods 7:287–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kolmogorov AN (1941a) The local structure of turbulence in incompressible viscous fluid for very large Reynolds numbers. Dokl Akad Nauk SSSR 30:299–303

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Kolmogorov AN (1941b) Dissipation of energy in locally isotropic turbulence. Dokl Akad Nauk SSSR 32:16–18

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Malik NA, Dracos T, Papantoniou DA (1993) Particle tracking velocimetry in three-dimensional flows. Exp Fluids 15:279–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malkiel E, Alquaddoomi O, Katz J (1999) Measurements of plankton distribution in the ocean using submersible holography. Meas Sci Technol 10:1142–1152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malkiel E, Abras JN, Widder EA, Katz J (2006) On the spatial distribution and nearest neighbor distance between particles in the water column determined from in situ holographic measurements. J Plankton Res 28:149–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malviya S, Scalco E, Audic S, Vincent F, Veluchamy A, Poulain J, Wincker P, Iudicone D, de Vargas C, Bittner L, Zingone A, Bowler C (2016) Insights into global diatom distribution and diversity in the world’s ocean. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113:E1516–E1525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxey MR (1987) The gravitational settling of aerosol particles in homogeneous turbulence and random flow fields. J Fluid Mech 174:441–465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mordant N, Crawford AM, Bodenschatz E (2004) Experimental Lagrangian acceleration probability density function measurement. Physica D Nonlinear Phenomena 193:245–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niazi Ardekani M, Sardina G, Brandt L, Karp-Boss L, Bearon RN, Variano EA (2017) Sedimentation of inertia-less prolate spheroids in homogenous isotropic turbulence with application to non-motile phytoplankton. J Fluid Mech 831:655–674

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Ouellette NT, Xu H, Bodenschatz E (2006) A quantitative study of three-dimensional Lagrangian particle tracking algorithms. Exp Fluids 40:301–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ouellette NT, O’Malley PJJ, Gollub JP (2008) Transport of finite-sized particles in chaotic flow. Phys Rev Lett 101:174504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira F, Gharib M (2002) Defocusing digital particle image velocimetry and the three-dimensional characterization of two-phase flows. Meas Sci Technol 13:683–694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Alvarado A, Mydlarski L, Gaskin S (2016) Effect of the driving algorithm on the turbulence generated by a random jet array. Exp Fluids 57:20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pope SB (2000) Turbulent flows. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ragueneau O, Schultes S, Bidle K, Claquin P, Moriceau B (2006) Si and C interactions in the world ocean: importance of ecological processes and implications for the role of diatoms in the biological pump. Glob Biogeochem Cycles 20:GB4S02

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz J, Macías D, Peters F (2004) Turbulence increases the average settling velocity of phytoplankton cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:17720–17724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salazar JPLC, de Jong J, Cao L, Woodward SH, Meng H, Collins LR (2008) Experimental and numerical investigation of inertial particle clustering in isotropic turbulence. J Fluid Mech 600:245–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tse IC, Variano EA (2013) Lagrangian measurement of fluid and particle motion using a field-deployable Volumetric Particle Imager (VoPI). Limnol Oceanogr Methods 11:225–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Variano EA, Cowen EA (2008) A random-jet-stirred turbulence tank. J Fluid Mech 604:1–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willert CE, Gharib M (1992) Three-dimensional particle imaging with a single camera. Exp Fluids 12:353–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (OCE-1334788 to Evan A. Variano and OCE-1334365 to Lee Karp-Boss and Peter Jumars). Additionally, we would like to extend our thanks to Peter Jumars for extensive discussions at the outset of this project and for providing comments on the manuscript, Laura Mazzaro for help with designing and constructing the prototype tank, and Morteza Gharib for fruitful conversations regarding the volumetric particle imager. We also acknowledge useful comments from anonymous reviewers.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Nimish Pujara

    Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

  2. Kevin T. Du Clos

    Present address: Institute for Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Nimish Pujara & Evan A. Variano

  2. School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04473, USA

    Kevin T. Du Clos, Stephanie Ayres & Lee Karp-Boss

Authors
  1. Nimish Pujara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kevin T. Du Clos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Stephanie Ayres
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Evan A. Variano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lee Karp-Boss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nimish Pujara.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pujara, N., Du Clos, K.T., Ayres, S. et al. Measurements of trajectories and spatial distributions of diatoms (Coscinodiscus spp.) at dissipation scales of turbulence. Exp Fluids 62, 149 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-021-03240-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-021-03240-5

Search

Navigation