Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position

Marras, Stefano; Killen, Shaun S.; Lindström, Jan; McKenzie, David J.; Steffensen, John F.; Domenici, Paolo

doi:10.1007/s00265-014-1834-4

Cited by 214 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…3). The tail-beat frequency is directly correlated with the oxygen consumption rate of the fish-oxygen consumption being an indirect measure of metabolic rate and energy consumption (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34). Therefore, the decrease in tail-beat frequency can be considered as a decrease in energy consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple phalanx pattern leads to energy saving in cohesive fish schooling

Ashraf

Bradshaw

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

117

143

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The question of how individuals in a population organize when living in groups arises for systems as different as a swarm of microorganisms or a flock of seagulls. The different patterns for moving collectively involve a wide spectrum of reasons, such as evading predators or optimizing food prospection. Also, the schooling pattern has often been associated with an advantage in terms of energy consumption. In this study, we use a popular aquarium fish, the red nose tetra fish, Hemigrammus bleheri, which is known to swim in highly cohesive groups, to analyze the schooling dynamics. In our experiments, fish swim in a shallow-water tunnel with controlled velocity, and stereoscopic video recordings are used to track the 3D positions of each individual in a school, as well as their tail-beating kinematics. Challenging the widespread idea of fish favoring a diamond pattern to swim more efficiently [Weihs D (1973) Nature 241:290-291], we observe that when fish are forced to swim fast-well above their free-swimming typical velocity, and hence in a situation where efficient swimming would be favored-the most frequent configuration is the "phalanx" or "soldier" formation, with all individuals swimming side by side. We explain this observation by considering the advantages of tail-beating synchronization between neighbors, which we have also characterized. Most importantly, we show that schooling is advantageous as compared with swimming alone from an energy-efficiency perspective.fish swimming | collective dynamics | pattern formation | synchronization | energy efficiency T he dynamics of animal groups is driven by many different factors, such as foraging, social life, or survival instinct against predators (1). The collective movements are built from local interactions between the individuals constituting the group (2, 3). Apart from behavioral aspects, the benefit from schooling has often been associated with group optimization in terms of hydrodynamic resistance (4). A fish school represents a typical case of such cohesive and collaborative complex systems. The fluid dynamical mechanisms influencing the motion of fish in a school have been described in essence in the early study of Weihs (5). He demonstrated, using a 2D model, that if each fish maintains a specific position within the school, forming a diamond pattern, the hydrodynamic interactions will globally improve the swimming performance. The basic idea is that fish in a school optimize swimming by interacting constructively with the vortices shed by the local leading individuals; such constructive interactions require a precise synchronization between fish. This study has been followed by an extensive number of studies modeling or simulating fish school swimming configurations to validate Weihs' hypothesis (6-8). It has been shown that by following this strategy, fish could improve their efficiency by ∼20% (8, 9). However, the idea that a beneficial situation in terms of swimming power can be achieved for the group by maintaining a specific complex pattern remai...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple phalanx pattern leads to energy saving in cohesive fish schooling

Ashraf

Bradshaw

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

117

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The lateral line found on the body of fishes supports important functions, such as prey tracking [12], schooling [13] and vortex sensing [14]. In addition, fishes are known to actively control their kinematics to interact with oncoming externally generated vortices, in order to extract energy from the flow and thereby reduce their locomotory energy expenditure, such as in the Karman gaiting of trout [14].…”

Section: Mechanosensory Lateral-line Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial fish skin of self-powered micro-electromechanical systems hair cells for sensing hydrodynamic flow phenomena

Asadnia

Kottapalli

Miao

et al. 2015

J. R. Soc. Interface.

120

124

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Using biological sensors, aquatic animals like fishes are capable of performing impressive behaviours such as super-manoeuvrability, hydrodynamic flow 'vision' and object localization with a success unmatched by human- , respectively, for an oscillating dipole stimulus vibrating at 35 Hz. Flexible arrays of such superficial sensors were demonstrated to localize an underwater dipole stimulus. Comparative experimental studies revealed a high-pass filtering nature of the canal encapsulated sensors with a cut-off frequency of 10 Hz and a flat frequency response of artificial SNs. Flexible arrays of self-powered, miniaturized, light-weight, low-cost and robust artificial lateral-line systems could enhance the capabilities of underwater vehicles.

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“…Living in groups provides various advantages [1], such as a reduced energetic cost of locomotion [2][3][4], reduced vulnerability to predators [5] and increased foraging opportunities [6]. Group-living animals must synchronize their behaviour to maintain group cohesion [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…R. Soc. B 283: 20153019 depending on the spatial position [30], as the hydrodynamic advantages are different among the spatial positions in a group [2][3][4], resulting in differences in GAU performance. The reduced speed (FL s…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of body size on the intermittent locomotion of a pelagic schooling fish

et al. 2016

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There is a potential trade-off between grouping and the optimizing of the energetic efficiency of individual locomotion. Although intermittent locomotion, e.g. glide and upward swimming (GAU), can reduce the cost of locomotion at the individual level, the link between the optimization of individual intermittent locomotion and the behavioural synchronization in a group, especially among members with different sizes, is unknown. Here, we continuously monitored the schooling behaviour of a negatively buoyant fish, Pacific bluefin tuna (N ¼ 10; 21.0 24.5 cm), for 24 h in an open-sea net cage using accelerometry. All the fish repeated GAU during the recording periods. Although the GAU synchrony was maintained at high levels (overall mean ¼ 0.62 for the cross-correlation coefficient of the GAU timings), larger fish glided for a longer duration per glide and more frequently than smaller fish. Similar-sized pairs showed significantly higher GAU synchrony than differently sized pairs. Our accelerometry results and the simulation based on hydrodynamic theory indicated that the advantage of intermittent locomotion in energy savings may not be fully optimized for smaller animals in a group when faced with the maintenance of group cohesion, suggesting that size assortative shoaling would be advantageous.

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Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position

Cited by 214 publications

References 41 publications

Simple phalanx pattern leads to energy saving in cohesive fish schooling

Simple phalanx pattern leads to energy saving in cohesive fish schooling

Artificial fish skin of self-powered micro-electromechanical systems hair cells for sensing hydrodynamic flow phenomena

The influence of body size on the intermittent locomotion of a pelagic schooling fish

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