Collaborative Research: Flow and Nutrient Exchange Driven by Pulsating Coral

珊瑚生态系统因其显著的多样性而引起自然资源保护主义者的极大兴趣。与软珊瑚群落相比，珊瑚礁由硬珊瑚和碳酸钙骨架组成。这两种珊瑚之间的一个显着差异是，Xeniidae家族的软珊瑚积极脉动，这种能量昂贵的行为已被证明可以将光合作用速率提高一个数量级。本提案的中心目标是描述这些活跃的运动如何在某些环境条件下通过增强光合速率使软珊瑚具有竞争优势。该项目的主要重点是确定灵活的生物体的主动运动如何增强颗粒捕获和营养交换。特别是，PI将使用数学建模和实验相结合的方法研究Xeniidae家族的物种，脉冲软珊瑚。这项工作将开发数学模型来表示多孔弹性结构，代表珊瑚的羽毛状触角。PI还将开发自适应数值方法，用于处理这些移动弹性边界处的营养物质通量。两名研究生和四名本科生将在科学计算，数学建模和实验生物学的接口进行培训。PI将通过每个机构的既定机制招募不同的本科生群体。将实施几项教育活动，以促进生物物理学计算，包括定量生物学实验室的发展，以下具体目标将在这个项目中得到解决：目标1：确定一个单一的息肉的脉冲动力学如何影响流体的散装运输过去的有机体和小规模的混合周围的有机体表面。目标2：确定脉冲作用如何增强颗粒捕获、营养物质交换和废物去除。目的3：确定是否组脉冲动力学优化交换使用网络分析和计算流体动力学。

Coral ecosystems are of significant interest to conservationists because of their remarkable diversity. Coral reefs, in comparison to colonies of soft corals, are composed of hard corals with calcium carbonate skeletons. One significant difference between the two corals is that the soft coral of the family Xeniidae actively pulse, and this energetically expensive behavior has been shown to enhance photosynthesis rates by an order of magnitude. The central goal of this proposal is to describe how these active movements might give soft coral a competitive advantage through augmented photosynthetic rates under certain environmental conditions. The broad focus of this project is to determine how active movements of flexible organisms enhance particle capture and nutrient exchange. In particular the PIs will study species of the family Xeniidae, the pulsing soft corals, using a combination of mathematical modeling and experiments. This work will develop mathematical models to represent poroelastic structures representative of the feathery tentacles of the corals. The PIs will also develop adaptive numerical methods for handling the flux of nutrients at these moving elastic boundaries. Two graduate students and four undergraduates will be trained at the interface of scientific computing, mathematical modeling, and experimental biology. The PIs willrecruit a diverse group of undergraduate students through established mechanisms at each institution. Several educational activities will be implemented to promote computation in biophysics, including the development of quantitative biology labs.The following specific aims will be addressed in this project: Aim 1: Determine how the pulsing dynamics of a single polyp affects the bulk transport of fluid past the organism and the small scale mixing around the surface of the organism. Aim 2: Determine how the pulsing action enhances particle capture, the exchange of nutrients, and removal of waste. Aim 3: Determine whether or not the group pulsing dynamics are optimized for exchange using network analysis and computational fluid dynamics.