Seminar "Phytoplankton swimming in a flow" by Massimo Cencini

• Date: Mar 15 (Thu)
• Time: 14:00-15:00
• Venue: C016, Lab1
• Speaker: Massimo Cencini, Researcher at CNR-ISC - Institute for Complex Systems

Phytoplankton swimming in a flow

Abstract:  Many unicellular algae, which compose phytoplankton, are able to swim. Some species have simple orientation mechanisms allowing them to swim against gravity towards the photic zone. A standard mechanistic model allows to account for several experimental observations as resulting from the balance between fluid torque and directed vertical motion, the so-called gyrotaxis. I will review some recent studies showing how the interplay of fluid motion and gyrotactic motility can generate nontrivial distribution of phytoplankton. Key to the understanding of these phenomena is the use of dynamical systems theory.