IOS: RUI: Suction feeding in small organisms - outpacing the size limit

IOS：RUI：小型生物体的吸食——超越尺寸限制

• 批准号: 1352130
• 负责人: Ulrike Muller
• 金额: $ 29.88万
• 依托单位: California State University-Fresno Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1352130&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IOS; RUI; Suction; feeding; small

Bladderwort, an aquatic carnivorous plant, is among the fastest known predators, able to capture and ingest its prey in less than 1 millisecond. Bladderwort is also among the smallest suction feeders, sucking planktonic prey into millimeter-sized underwater traps. Bladderwort are interesting not just for their speed and small size, but because their feeding mode is also the most common found in fish, from larva to adult. Yet current understanding suggests that suction feeding is less suitable for small organisms such as fish larvae - small suction feeders experience water as viscous, which seriously limits suction speed and increases the energetic costs of suction. Fish larvae are known to have a low success rate at capturing prey and hence suffer high mortality from starvation, which in turn is a main factor limiting recruitment and adult fish population size.This study aims to identify the lower size limit of suction feeding. This study will lead not just to a better understanding of suction feeding in small organisms, but might also help to address the high mortality of larval fish. To study suction feeding in small organisms, students will conduct experiments on bladderwort to discover how suction feeders as small or even smaller than larval fish capture their prey. Students will build mathematical and robotic models to explore what limits capture success. The goal is to identify the morphological features and flow mechanisms that allow small organisms to suction feed. By combining data sets on bladderwort from Fresno State, students with data sets on larval fish and tadpoles from collaborating universities, this study will then compare the morphological and flow features of all three organisms to explore how far plants and animals have developed converging solutions. The research within this study will be conducted at a minority-serving institution. It will be integrated not only into undergraduate and Master's thesis research projects, but also into several undergraduate courses to enable roughly 2000 students per year to conduct authentic research as part of their course work.

水囊藻是一种水生食肉植物，是已知最快的捕食者之一，能够在不到1毫秒的时间内捕获并吞下猎物。海鞘也是最小的吸食动物之一，将浮游动物的猎物吸入毫米大小的水下陷阱。 Bladderwort有趣的不仅仅是它们的速度和小尺寸，而是因为它们的进食模式也是鱼类中最常见的，从幼虫到成虫。 然而，目前的理解表明，吸食不太适合小型生物，如鱼苗-小型吸食器的经验，水作为粘性，这严重限制了吸力的速度，并增加了吸力的能量成本。 由于幼鱼的成功率低，饥饿致死率高，是限制幼鱼补充和成鱼数量的主要因素，本研究旨在确定幼鱼吸食的最小尺寸。 这项研究不仅有助于更好地了解小型生物的吸食，还可能有助于解决仔鱼的高死亡率问题。 为了研究小型生物的吸食，学生们将对膀胱藻进行实验，以发现比仔鱼更小甚至更小的吸食器如何捕获猎物。 学生将建立数学和机器人模型，探索什么限制捕捉成功。 其目的是确定允许小生物吸取饲料的形态特征和流动机制。 通过结合弗雷斯诺州立大学的bladderwort数据集，学生与合作大学的幼鱼和蝌蚪数据集，本研究将比较所有三种生物的形态和流动特征，以探索植物和动物在多大程度上发展了融合的解决方案。 这项研究将在少数群体服务机构进行。它不仅将整合到本科和硕士论文研究项目中，而且还将整合到几门本科课程中，使每年大约2000名学生能够进行真实的研究，作为他们课程工作的一部分。