Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS23 In Transition: Biomechanics of Sensory Perception (Disciplinary Connections)

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 4:15:00 PM

Location: Acoma/Zuni/Tesuque

Yen, J, , Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Biology, Atlanta, GA., USA, jeannette.yen@biology.gatech.edu

Weissburg et al., M, J, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Biology, Atlanta, GA., USA, marc.weissburg.@biology.gatech.edu

INTERDISCIPLINARY CHALLENGES IN UNDERSTANDING SENSORY PERCEPTION IN FLUIDS: PANEL DISCUSSION

Research presented in this session has covered a wide range of organisms and fluid environments and demonstrated our need for integrated studies on fluid mechanics, behavior, and physiology for understanding sensory perception in fluids. Survival in aquatic ecosystems demands effective sensory systems to mediate inter-individual interactions, making it imperative that we continue to develop this field. This poses significant interdisciplinary research challenges, relying on cooperation between many fields. We would like to discuss opportunities that make such cooperation attractive, and start by raising these issues. What fundamental fluid mechanical questions arise in understanding the interactions of biological organisms and flow? How can we match organismal properties with the fluid physical properties? Fluids create a distribution of momentum and mass that are complex at different temporal and spatial scales, where, for example, the instantaneous correlation between fluctuations in mass and momentum are currently not well understood. And, while we are able to understand properties of fluid flow using simple non-dimensional ratios (Re), have we developed parallel relationships of animal temporal and spatial perceptual scales to scales of chemical distribution in flow?

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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