Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 338, Issue 6107, Pages 675-679Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1219417
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
- NSF [OCE-0744641-CAREER, CBET-1066566]
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Division Of Ocean Sciences [0744641] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Bacteria play an indispensable role in marine biogeochemistry by recycling dissolved organic matter. Motile species can exploit small, ephemeral solute patches through chemotaxis and thereby gain a fitness advantage over nonmotile competitors. This competition occurs in a turbulent environment, yet turbulence is generally considered inconsequential for bacterial uptake. In contrast, we show that turbulence affects uptake by stirring nutrient patches into networks of thin filaments that motile bacteria can readily exploit. We find that chemotactic motility is subject to a trade-off between the uptake benefit due to chemotaxis and the cost of locomotion, resulting in an optimal swimming speed. A second trade-off results from the competing effects of stirring and mixing and leads to the prediction that chemotaxis is optimally favored at intermediate turbulence intensities.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available