Mechanics of Fish Interactions with Planar Rigid Boundaries

陆地动物必须不断地支撑自己的身体，以抵抗重力，而重力限制了这些动物所使用的运动方法的范围。相比之下，鱼生活在一个支撑身体的环境中，因此运动努力可以集中在环境中的移动上。因此，水生动物，尤其是鱼类，比它们的陆生近亲使用更广泛的多样化方法进行移动。然而，与其他形式相比，某些身体和鳍形式允许更有效地使用一些运动方法，并作为推论，影响鱼类生活的栖息地和它们的行为。到目前为止，大多数工作都研究了鱼类的形态、功能和栖息地对生活在开放水域环境中的鱼类是如何相互影响的。在实践中，鱼通常占据，实际上更喜欢栖息地，包括结构，特别是表面，如水床，边和杂草。鱼类生物学的这一领域一直被忽视，拟议的研究试图纠正这种情况。理论模型表明，动物或其推进器与地面的距离是决定地面对系统影响的最重要因素。这项研究将系统地确定鱼的身体和推进器的不同形状如何影响典型物种在水平表面(代表底部)和垂直表面(代表侧面、杂草床和分枝珊瑚)附近和远离的表现。这一结果将为鱼类与刚性表面的相互作用提供一个全面的描述性力学模型，该模型将用于理解和解释不同生境和微生境中鱼类的分布。除了获得有关鱼类生物学的基本新知识外，还必须认识到，现代动物管理，包括鱼类和水生生境，寻求将其做法建立在种群和群落结构模型的基本原则之上。拟议的研究针对的是后者。因此，这项研究有望为各种应用做出贡献。例如，这项研究预计将提供吸引不同类型鱼类的物理结构的设计原则，完善人工鱼礁的设计，恢复或保护海岸线开发，以及选择水下公园的地点。此外，这项研究还将展示表面如何影响底栖鱼类的性能。这样的研究有助于渔具的设计，这项研究有望为基于形状的鱼类选择渔具提出新的设计。

Terrestrial animals must continually support their bodies against the force of gravity which restricts the range of locomotion methods used by these animals. In contrast, fish live in an environment which buoys up the body, so that locomotor effort can be focussed on moving through the environment. As a result aquatic animals, and especially fish, move using a wider diversity of methods than their terrestrial relatives. Nevertheless, certain body and fin forms allow for more effective use of some locomotor methods compared to others, and, as a corollary, affects the habitat in which fishes live and their behavior. Most work to date has examined how fish form, function and habitat interrelate for fish living in open water environments. In practice, fish usually occupy, and indeed prefer, habitats including structures, especially surfaces such as the water bed, sides and weeds. This area of fish biology has been neglected, a situation that the proposed research seeks to rectify. Theoretical models show that the distance separating an animal or its propulsor from the ground is most important in determining the effect of a surface on the system. The research will systematically determine how different shapes of the body and of propulsors of fish affect the performance of typical species near and distant from horizontal surfaces (representing the bottom) and vertical surfaces (representing sides, weeds beds, and branching corals). The result will provide a comprehensive descriptive mechanical model for fish interactions with rigid surfaces which will be used to understand and interpret distributions of fish in different habitats and microhabitats. In addition to obtaining fundamental new knowledge on fish biology, it is essential to recognize that modern animal management, including fish and aquatic habitats, seeks to base its practices on first principles population and community structure models. The proposed research addresses the latter. Therefore, the research is expected to contribute to a variety of applications. For example, the research is expected to provide design principles for physical structures that would attract different types of fish, refining the design of artificial reefs, rehabilitation or protection of shoreline development, and selection of sites for underwater parks. In addition, the research will show how surfaces affect performance of bethic fish. Studies such as these have contributed to the design of fishing gear, and the research is anticipated to suggest novel designs for gear selective for fish species based on form.