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Published on: November 18, 2015
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Experiments and Agent Based Models of Zooplankton Movement within Complex Flow Environments.
Mustafa Kemal Ozalp1, Laura A Miller1, Thomas Dombrowski2
1Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland)
|January 18, 2020
Summary
Simulating plankton movement in flow environments is challenging. This study used agent-based models and experiments with brine shrimp to show that denser macrophyte beds significantly slow plankton washout.
Area of Science:
- Fluid dynamics
- Ecological modeling
- Marine biology
Background:
- Plankton movement is influenced by water flow, with structures like reefs and beds altering distributions.
- Modeling plankton movement across scales is difficult due to challenges in experimental validation.
- Existing open-source tools for simulating actively moving agents in flow fields are limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a new agent-based modeling platform, Planktos, for simulating plankton movement in complex flow environments.
- To quantify the effects of submerged structures, specifically macrophyte beds, on plankton distribution and retention.
- To compare experimental results with agent-based model simulations for validation and understanding.
Main Methods:
- Utilized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model 3D flow fields around simplified macrophyte structures (3D-printed cylinders).
- Conducted experiments using brine shrimp (Artemia spp.) in a flow tank with varying macrophyte densities and heights, recording distributions via video.
- Developed and implemented the agent-based modeling framework, Planktos, to simulate brine shrimp movement within the quantified flow fields.
Main Results:
- Increasing macrophyte bed density significantly increased the average time plankton remained in the area before being washed downstream.
- Macrophyte bed height had a less pronounced effect on plankton retention compared to density.
- Agent-based model simulations closely matched experimental observations of plankton distribution over time.
Conclusions:
- The developed agent-based model, Planktos, effectively simulates plankton movement in flow environments with submerged structures.
- Macrophyte bed density is a critical factor in controlling plankton washout and retention.
- This integrated approach of experimentation and agent-based modeling provides a scalable method for studying plankton dynamics in complex aquatic systems.
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