Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Shapiro, Orr H.
• Fernandez, Vicente I.
• Garren, Melissa
• Guasto, Jeffrey S.
• Debaillon-Vesque, François P.
• Kramarsky-Winter, Esti
• Vardi, Assaf
• Stocker, Roman

Titel

Vortical ciliary flows actively enhance mass transport in reef corals

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2014-09, Vol.111 (37), p.13391-13396

Ort / Verlag

United States: National Academy of Sciences

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Significance The fitness of corals and their ability to form large reefs hinge on their capacity to exchange oxygen and nutrients with their environment. Lacking gills or other ventilating organs, corals have been commonly assumed to depend entirely on ambient flow to overcome the mass transport limitations associated with molecular diffusion. Here, we show that corals are not enslaved to ambient flow but instead, can actively enhance mass transport by producing intense vortical flows with their epidermal cilia. By vigorously stirring the water immediately adjacent to their surface, this active process allows corals to increase mass transport and thus, can be a fundamental survival mechanism in regions or at times of weak ambient flow.