Sharks have a distinctive shape that remained practically unchanged through hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Nonetheless, there are variations of this shape that vary between and within species. We attempt to explain these variations by examining the partial derivatives of the cost of transport of a generic shark with respect to buoyancy, span and chord of its pectoral fins, length, girth and body temperature. Our analysis predicts an intricate relation between these parameters, suggesting that ectothermic species residing in cooler temperatures must either have longer pectoral fins and/or be more buoyant in order to maintain swimming performance. It also suggests that, in general, the buoyancy must increase with size, and therefore, there must be ontogenetic changes within a species, with individuals getting more buoyant as they grow. Pelagic species seem to have near optimally sized fins (which minimize the cost of transport), but the majority of reef sharks could have reduced the cost of transport by increasing the size of their fins. The fact that they do not implies negative selection, probably owing to decreased manoeuvrability in confined spaces (e.g. foraging on a reef).
Animal behavior should optimize the difference between the energy they gain from prey and the energy they spend searching for prey. This is all the more critical for predators occupying the pelagic environment, as prey is sparse and patchily distributed. We theoretically derive two canonical swimming strategies for pelagic predators, that maximize their energy surplus while foraging. They predict that while searching, a pelagic predator should maintain small dive angles, swim at speeds near those that minimize the cost of transport, and maintain constant speed throughout the dive. Using biologging sensors, we show that oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) behavior matches these predictions. We estimate that daily energy requirements of an adult shark can be met by consuming approximately 1–1.5 kg of prey (1.5% body mass) per day; shark-borne video footage shows a shark encountering potential prey numbers exceeding that amount. Oceanic whitetip sharks showed incredible plasticity in their behavioral strategies, ranging from short low-energy bursts on descents, to high-speed vertical surface breaches from considerable depth. Oceanic whitetips live a life of energy speculation with minimization, very different to those of tunas and billfish.
Animals exhibit various physiological and behavioural strategies for minimizing travel costs. Fins of aquatic animals play key roles in efficient travel and, for sharks, the functions of dorsal and pectoral fins are considered well divided: the former assists propulsion and generates lateral hydrodynamic forces during turns and the latter generates vertical forces that offset sharks' negative buoyancy. Here we show that great hammerhead sharks drastically reconfigure the function of these structures, using an exaggerated dorsal fin to generate lift by swimming rolled on their side. Tagged wild sharks spend up to 90% of time swimming at roll angles between 50° and 75°, and hydrodynamic modelling shows that doing so reduces drag—and in turn, the cost of transport—by around 10% compared with traditional upright swimming. Employment of such a strongly selected feature for such a unique purpose raises interesting questions about evolutionary pathways to hydrodynamic adaptations, and our perception of form and function.
Physical limits on swimming speed of lunate tail propelled aquatic animals are proposed. A hydrodynamic analysis, applying experimental data wherever possible, is used to show that small swimmers (roughly less than a metre long) are limited by the available power, while larger swimmers at a few metres below the water surface are limited by cavitation. Depending on the caudal fin cross-section, 10-15 m s K1 is shown to be the maximum cavitation-free velocity for all swimmers at a shallow depth.
1. An animal's energy landscape considers the power requirements associated with residing in or moving through habitats. Within marine environments, these landscapes can be dynamic as water currents will influence animal power requirements and can change rapidly over diel and tidal cycles.
This experimental study addresses late transition stages over a conventional airfoil at Reynolds numbers of several ten thousands. The study is based on extensive volumetric flow measurements using constant temperature anemometry. This technique provided both the time-averaged description of the flow field in the vicinity of the wing and the high fidelity spectral analysis inside the separated boundary layer. Large cellular flow structures were observed above the wing. They resemble the stall cells at Reynolds numbers of a few hundred thousands and separation cells at Reynolds numbers of a few hundred. It is shown that most of the energy of the velocity fluctuations within the boundary layer over the forward half of the wing is concentrated in the low-frequency range of the spectrum, where the chord-based Strouhal number is small as compared with unity.
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