JPR Advance Access originally published online on July 28, 2004
Journal of Plankton Research 2004 26(11):1315-1325; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbh122
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Journal of Plankton Research Vol. 26 No. 11 © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved
Swimming in formation in krill (Euphausiacea), a hypothesis: dynamics of the flow field, properties of antennular sensor systems and a sensorymotor link

Zoologisches Institut und Zoologisches Museum der Universität, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Present Address: Department of Biology, University of Indonesia, FMIPA-UI, Depok 16424, Indonesia
* Corresponding Author: kwiese{at}zoologie.uni-hamburg.de
Received March 19, 2004; accepted in principle May 15, 2004; accepted for publication June 17, 2004; published online July 28, 2004
The act of swimming in formation by species such as Euphausia superba, Antarctic krill, is assumed to be regulated by a sensitivity to the characteristic and spatially elaborate flow field produced by this species of shrimp. We used a related species, Meganyctiphanes, North Atlantic krill, to visualize the flow field produced by tethered shrimps in an aquarium. In this situation, the propulsion jet flow some centimeters behind the shrimp is surrounded by a vortex ring of recoiling water motion from which, if the vortex is also produced by unrestrained swimming shrimp, a following shrimp hypothetically can draw forces of lift and propulsion to decrease energy expense in long-distance migration. Two antennular sensitivities to water vibration in frequency ranges 540 and 40150 Hz were calibrated, and the activity of connected interneurons was traced into the abdominal pleopod-carrying segments. Water oscillation of 310 Hz frequency, applied to the antennules, was shown to entrain a closely synchronous pleopod beat in the stimulated specimens.
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