Biol. Bull.
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Biol Bull 168: 312-320. (April 1985)
© 1985 Marine Biological Laboratory
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FLEXIBILITY: A MECHANISM FOR CONTROL OF LOCAL VELOCITIES IN HYDROID COLONIES

C. DREW HARVELL 1 and MICHAEL LABARBERA 2

1 Department of Zoology, NJ-15, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
2 Department of Anatomy, The University of Chicago, 1025 East 57 St., Chicago, Illinois 60637

A design conflict exists in passive suspension feeding colonies between maximizing surface area for feeding and minimizing drag-related forces on the colony. The importance of colony flexibility as a homeostatic mechanism was demonstrated experimentally on the scale of both the entire colony and the polyp. On the colony scale, flexibility reduces the relationship between drag and water velocity from a square to a first power dependence. This finding is consistent with the discovery that flexion in trees also reduces drag to a linear function of velocity. On the polyp scale, colony flexibility strongly damps flow velocity changes at the polyp over at least an order of magnitude change in ambient velocity. This previously unappreciated consequence of flexibility may be an important selective force affecting the evolution of colony form. The separate consequences of flexion at the polyp and whole colony level are considered in a simple conceptual model incorporating polyp feeding success and colony detachment probability over a range of flow velocities. Inspection of the model reveals that the lower velocity limit at which a colony can survive is likely to be constrained by polyp feeding success, while the upper velocity limit may be constrained by either polyp feeding success or the probability of colony detachment.

Submitted on October 22, 1984
Accepted on January 23, 1985




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