Dynamic Similarity or Size Proportionality? Adaptations of a Polar Copepod.

该项目探索了应用流体物理分析来评估粘性力在极地桡足类动物补偿温度适应中的重要性的可行性。南大洋的水比亚热带海洋低20摄氏度，粘性几乎是亚热带海洋的两倍，粘性的增加对浮游动物具有重大影响。在这些温暖和寒冷的水环境中，优胜科进化出了丰富的肉食性桡足类。在这项探索性研究中，来自自然温度范围极端(0和23摄氏度)的两个物种将被比较，以检验关于南极浮游生物如何适应南极低温-高粘度领域的两个替代假说，并评估粘性力在浮游生物进化中的重要性。更强的粘性力和更低的温度如何影响南极物种的行为？如果南极同类在动态上与其热带同类相似，它将以与其热带同类相同的雷诺数(Re)运行。或者，如果南极同种生物的适应与大小成正比，它们应该占据较高的Re区域，这表明各种过程的异速生长不受必须占据过渡流体区域的限制。这些实验设计了关于许多桡足类特征的明确定义的结果，如游泳速度、推进力和感觉场的大小。这些特征不仅决定了桡足类与物理世界的关系，也决定了它们的生物相互作用的结构。这项研究的结果将提供对影响浮游生物的主要进化力量的洞察，并提供一种手段来评估流体物理条件相对于温度补偿措施的重要性。流体物理、生物力学和神经生理学技术以前从未被应用于这些极地浮游生物。然而，如果这些方法富有成效且可行，将为探索极地浮游生物的感觉生态以及极地环境中小规模生物-物理-化学相互作用的作用提供方法。验证粘性效应重要性的实验证据也将证明，通过对世界海洋温度梯度上的其他同系物进行纬度比较，进一步的研究是合理的。

This project explores the feasibility of applying fluid physical analyses to evaluate the importance of viscous forces over compensatory temperature adaptations in a polar copepod. The water of the Southern Ocean is 20 Celsius colder and nearly twice as viscous as subtropical seas, and the increased viscosity has significant implications for swimming zooplankton. In each of these warm and cold aquatic environments have evolved abundant carnivorous copepods in the family Euchaetidae. In this exploratory study, two species from the extremes of the natural temperature range (0 and 23C) will be compared to test two alternate hypotheses concerning how Antarctic plankton adapt to the low temperature-high viscosity realm of the Antarctic and to evaluate the importance of viscous forces in the evolution of plankton. How do stronger viscous forces and lower temperature affect the behavior of the Antarctic species? If the Antarctic congener is dynamically similar to its tropical relative, it will operate at the same Reynolds number (Re) as its tropical congener. Alternatively, if the adaptations of the Antarctic congener are proportional to size, they should occupy a higher Re regime, which suggests that the allometry of various processes is not constrained by having to occupy a transitional fluid regime. The experiments are designed with clearly defined outcomes regarding a number of copepod characteristics, such as swimming speed, propulsive force, and size of the sensory field. These characteristics determine not only how copepods relate to the physical world, but also structure their biological interactions. The results of this study will provide insights on major evolutionary forces affecting plankton and provide a means to evaluate the importance of the fluid physical conditions relative to compensatory measures for temperature. Fluid physical, biomechanical, and neurophysiological techniques have not been previously applied to these polar plankton. However, these approaches, if productive and feasible, will provide ways to explore the sensory ecology of polar plankton and the role of small-scale biological-physical-chemical interactions in a polar environment. Experimental evidence validating the importance of viscous effects will also justify further research using latitudinal comparisons of other congeners along a temperature gradient in the world ocean.