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Journal of Plankton Research Vol.25 no.9 pp.1157-1168, 2003
© Oxford University Press 2003

Random motility of plankton: diffusive and aggregative contributions

André W. Visser* and Uffe Høgsbro Thygesen

Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, Department of Marine Ecology and Aquaculture, Kavalergården 6, DK-2920 Charlottenlund, Denmark

* Corresponding Author: awv{at}dfu.min.dk

We examine the spatial distribution of motile zooplankton moving with a variety of idealized random motility modes. The aggregation of organisms is examined for situations where the parameters governing random motility are cued to a heterogeneous environment and vary spatially. While spatial variation in swimming speed v, always leads to aggregation, spatial variations in the duration of swimming bouts {tau}, only leads to aggregation for some motility modes. At steady state, the concentration of organisms is proportional to 1/v and independent of {tau} for an organism that continually adjusts its motility in response to local conditions (random cruise motility). In comparison, an organism that sets its motility only at the start of a run (random jump motility) reaches a steady state concentration proportional to 1/({tau}v2). For an encounter–pause random motility, steady state concentration is proportional to [1 + (pause interval)(encounter rate)]. The latter incorporates the sensory ability and swimming behaviour exhibited by many pelagic copepods. Biodiffusion is a poor descriptor of random motility as it does not distinguish between the behavioural components that bring about accumulation of organisms. Mathematical formalism is provided to link individual-based random motility to macroscale phenomenology as encapsulated in appropriate advection diffusion equations.


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