68th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 22, 2015 — November 24, 2015)

V0047: The Swimming of Antarctica 'Sea-Butterflies'

Authors

• Jun Zhang, Courant Institute, New York University, New York; and Department of Physics at NYU Shanghai
• Deepak Adhikari, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA
• Jeannette Yen, School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2015.GFM.V0047

Antarctica pteropod plays a very important role in the food web of the Antarctic Ocean. Yet, it has been threatened by ocean acidification over the past decades. Understanding how they move and feed in their local environment has been a challenging task, and perhaps the first steps to better preserve them. In late 2014, a group of scientists that include biologists, engineers and physicists visited the US-supported research facility at the Palmer Station in Antarctica. There, they carefully studied and diligently documented the swimming locomotion of these small marine organisms. The unique swimming gaits of these "sea-butterflies" are now closely analyzed and better understood.