Biomechanics of how fish cope with environmental flow and how it influences habitat selection

水的物理性质创造了鱼类必须克服的需求，才能获得资源。例如，水的高密度和高粘度导致阻力显著限制了鱼的速度和加速度。因此，越来越多的著作表明，鱼的身体和鳍的形态和游泳运动模式可能会赋予各种功能优势。因此，假设一些鱼类物种可能无法在缺乏足够机械能力的栖息地生活，但这一点很少得到定量测试。要做到这一点，我们需要知道鱼身体的不同部位如何以及何时产生推进力，但直到我最近在方法开发方面的工作之前，我们还没有技术来详细研究活的、自由游泳的鱼的身体和鳍上产生的力。我的研究计划侧重于了解温带淡水系统中鱼类形态、身体和鳍的使用模式、性能和栖息地占用之间的关系。这些系统的范围从湍急的溪流到静止的湖泊，这是一种水流梯度，鱼类种类以及它们的形态和游泳运动在质量上都有所不同。我提出了三个短期目标，以支持对2名博士、3名硕士和10名本科生的培训：1)描述一个物种在高流量和低流量区域的游泳力和能力有多大的差异，2)确定什么机制允许一些鱼类应对湍流、波浪引起的起伏的水流和环境结构，以及3)探索游泳机制与鱼类丰度相对应的程度。为了实现这些目标，我将从博物馆标本中收集鱼的形状数据，建立将鱼的形状和丰度与栖息地特征联系起来的生态模型，进行物理力学研究，将鱼的形状和运动与游泳能力联系起来，并通过呼吸测量来探索游泳的能量成本。这项工作促进了我们对鱼类在不同栖息地生活的形式-功能关系的理解。反过来，这一理解为环境监测和打捞应用中的无人水下航行器设计挑战提供了潜在的仿生解决方案。目前的设计体积大，噪音大；鱼形设计对野生动物的干扰较小，更擅长在沉船等复杂结构中进行操纵。更广泛地说，这项工作有利于水生生态系统的管理，水生生态系统在加拿大各地具有商业、娱乐和文化价值。人类在海岸线上的发展、土地利用的变化和人为气候变化正在极大地改变水生系统中的水流和湍流--例如，增加洪水事件的频率和强度。因此，对鱼类如何与水流相互作用的了解为海岸线建设和栖息地修复工作提供了战略指导方针，最终有助于水产养殖和渔业管理。

Water's physical properties create demands that fishes must overcome to access resources. For example, water's high density and viscosity lead to drag forces that markedly limit a fish's speed and acceleration. Accordingly, a growing body of works suggests that fish body and fin morphology and swimming movement patterns could confer various functional advantages. So, it is hypothesized that some fish species may not be capable of living in habitats for which they lack sufficient mechanical ability, but this has rarely been tested quantitatively. To do so, we need to know how and when different parts of a fish's body generate propulsive forces, but until my recent work in methods development, we have not had the technology to study in detail the forces produced along the bodies and fins of live, freely swimming fishes. My research program focuses on understanding the relationships among fish morphology, body- and fin-use patterns, performance, and habitat occupancy in temperate freshwater systems. These systems range from torrential streams to static lakes, a flow gradient along which fish species and, qualitatively, their forms and swimming movements vary. I propose three short-term objectives that will support the training of 2 PhD, 3 MSc, and 10 undergraduate students: I will 1) describe how much variation there is in swimming forces and capabilities within a species that occurs in both high- and low-flow areas, 2) determine what mechanics allow some fishes to cope with turbulence, the choppy flows resulting from waves and environmental structure, and 3) explore the degree to which swimming mechanics corresponds to fish abundances. To achieve these goals, I will collect fish shape data from museum specimens, build ecological models that link fish shapes and abundances to habitat characteristics, perform physical mechanical studies to link shape and movement to swimming ability, and explore energetic costs of swimming with respirometry. This work advances our understanding of the form-function relationships enabling fishes to live in varied habitats. In turn, this understanding provides potential biomimetic solutions to unmanned underwater vehicles design challenges in environmental monitoring and salvage applications. Current designs are large and noisy; fish-like designs are less disruptive to wildlife and better at maneuvering through complex structures like shipwrecks. More broadly, this work benefits the stewardship of aquatic ecosystems, which have commercial, recreational, and cultural value across Canada. Human development at shoreline, changes to land use, and anthropogenic climate change are dramatically altering flow and turbulence in aquatic systems - e.g., increasing the frequency and intensity of flooding events. An understanding of how fishes interact with flow therefore informs strategic guidelines for shoreline construction and habitat remediation efforts, ultimately contributing to aquaculture and fisheries management.