SICB Divisions
- Animal Behavior
- Botany
- Comparative Biomechanics
- Comparative Endocrinology
- Comp. Physiol. Biochemistry
- Ecoimmunology & Disease Ecology
- Evol. Developmental Biology
- Ecology & Evolution
- Invertebrate Zoology
- Neurobiology, Neuroethology & Sensory Biol.
- Phylogenetics and Comparative Biol.
(formerly: Systematic and Evolutionary Biol.) - Vertebrate Morphology
SICB Division of Ecology and Evolution (DEE)
DEE Researchers Database Entry |
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| James Liao How fish alter their swimming mechanics and physiology when exposed to turbulent flow environments |
| The view from below: My research documents how fish can profoundly alter their swimming mechanics and physiology when exposed to turbulent flow environments. Fish, like these rainbow trout, adopt a novel mode of locomotion when they interact with vortices (revealed here by bubbles) generated experimentally from a cylinder. By using high-speed video, flow visualization, and in vivo muscle recordings, I was able to show that fish reduce muscle activity when interacting with vortices. This finding supports a hydrodynamic explanation for fish distributions in schools and in current swept habitats. Field work confirms that a diversity of wild fishes of differing body morphologies and ecological niches will exploit vortices shed from cylinders. Currently, I am investigating the role of sensory feedback on locomotion at the cellular level using zebrafish. |