Please note that this session was withdrawn and is no longer available in the respective programme. This withdrawal might have been the result of a merge with another session.
NP6.4 | Turbulence and Plankton
Turbulence and Plankton
Convener: François G. Schmitt | Co-conveners: Enrico Calzavarini, Martin Bees, Eric Climent
Planktonic organisms live in suspension in marine or fresh waters where they have adapted through the slow process of natural evolution (over hundred of thousands of generations) to the harsh turbulent currents of their environment. Therefore, contrary to what the meaning of their name “marine drifter” might let to speculate, their dynamics is potentially different from the one of material bodies passively transported by fluid flows. It is indeed known that these organisms developed many adaptive strategies involving shape and density regulation, swimming activity, aggregation and other mechanisms in order to be sheltered from or to take advantage of turbulent flow features.

Bloom inceptions, thin layers formation, motility, nutrient and light uptakes, specific Lagrangian dynamics, among others are topics involving phytoplankton and turbulence. Jumps, grazing, contact rates, and vertical migration are, among others, topics concerning zooplankton in turbulence. For all planktonic species, adaptive mechanisms in response not only to mechanical, but also chemical and electro-magnetic (such as luminous) cues are topics of great interest.

This interdisciplinary session will welcome works from marine ecologists, oceanographers, fluid-dynamicists, physicists and mathematical modellers. Contributions in the fields of observation, laboratory experimentations, numerical models (such as Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations of non-spherical or motile particles) are welcome. Both phytoplankton and zooplankton will be considered, as well as marine and freshwater studies.