scholarly journals Lunge Feeding in Rorqual Whales

Physiology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 409-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Shadwick ◽  
Jean Potvin ◽  
Jeremy A. Goldbogen
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Filter Feeding ◽  
Feeding Mode ◽  
Feeding Mechanism ◽  
Physiological Adaptations ◽  
Foraging Performance ◽  
Filter Feeders ◽  
Marine Vertebrates ◽  
Lunge Feeding

The largest animals are baleen filter feeders that exploit large aggregations of small-bodied plankton. Although this feeding mechanism has evolved multiple times in marine vertebrates, rorqual whales exhibit a distinct lunge filter feeding mode that requires extreme physiological adaptations—most of which remain poorly understood. Here, we review the biomechanics of the lunge feeding mechanism in rorqual whales that underlies their extraordinary foraging performance and gigantic body size.

scholarly journals Channeling vorticity: modeling the filter-feeding mechanism in silver carp using μCT and 3D PIV

2018 ◽  
Vol 221 (19) ◽  
pp. jeb183350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karly E. Cohen ◽  
L. Patricia Hernandez ◽  
Callie H. Crawford ◽  
Brooke E. Flammang
Keyword(s):  
Silver Carp ◽  
Filter Feeding ◽  
Feeding Mechanism

scholarly journals Cambrian cinctan echinoderms shed light on feeding in the ancestral deuterostome

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1818) ◽  
pp. 20151964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran A. Rahman ◽  
Samuel Zamora ◽  
Peter L. Falkingham ◽  
Jeremy C. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Feeding Strategy ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Filter Feeder ◽  
Feeding Mode ◽  
Active Feeding ◽  
Filter Feeders ◽  
Drag And Lift ◽  
Shed Light

Reconstructing the feeding mode of the latest common ancestor of deuterostomes is key to elucidating the early evolution of feeding in chordates and allied phyla; however, it is debated whether the ancestral deuterostome was a tentaculate feeder or a pharyngeal filter feeder. To address this, we evaluated the hydrodynamics of feeding in a group of fossil stem-group echinoderms (cinctans) using computational fluid dynamics. We simulated water flow past three-dimensional digital models of a Cambrian fossil cinctan in a range of possible life positions, adopting both passive tentacular feeding and active pharyngeal filter feeding. The results demonstrate that an orientation with the mouth facing downstream of the current was optimal for drag and lift reduction. Moreover, they show that there was almost no flow to the mouth and associated marginal groove under simulations of passive feeding, whereas considerable flow towards the animal was observed for active feeding, which would have enhanced the transport of suspended particles to the mouth. This strongly suggests that cinctans were active pharyngeal filter feeders, like modern enteropneust hemichordates and urochordates, indicating that the ancestral deuterostome employed a similar feeding strategy.

scholarly journals Is diversity in worker body size important for the performance of bumble bee colonies?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob G. Holland ◽  
Shinnosuke Nakayama ◽  
Maurizio Porfiri ◽  
Oded Nov ◽  
Guy Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Bombus Terrestris ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Physiological Adaptations ◽  
Comparable Performance ◽  
Colony Performance ◽  
Size Diversity ◽  
Individual Effort ◽  
Bee Colonies

ABSTRACTSpecialization and plasticity are important for many forms of collective behavior, but the interplay between these factors is little understood. In insect societies, workers are often predisposed to specialize in different tasks, sometimes with morphological or physiological adaptations, facilitating a division of labor. Workers may also plastically switch between tasks or vary their effort. The degree to which predisposed specialization limits plasticity is not clear and has not been systematically tested in ecologically relevant contexts. We addressed this question in 20 freely-foraging bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) colonies by continually manipulating colonies to contain either a typically diverse or reduced (“homogeneous”) worker body size distribution, over two trials. Pooling both trials, diverse colonies did better in several indices of colony performance. The importance of body size was further demonstrated by the finding that foragers were larger than nurses even in homogeneous colonies with a very narrow body size range. However, the overall effect of size diversity stemmed mostly from one trial. In the other trial, homogeneous and diverse colonies showed comparable performance. By comparing behavioral profiles based on several thousand observations, we found evidence that workers in homogeneous colonies in this trial rescued colony performance by plastically increasing behavioral specialization and/or individual effort, compared to same-sized individuals in diverse colonies. Our results are consistent with a benefit to colonies of predisposed (size-diverse) specialists under certain conditions, but also suggest that plasticity or effort, can compensate for reduced (size-related) specialization. Thus, we suggest that an intricate interplay between specialization and plasticity is functionally adaptive in bumble bee colonies.

The soft-sediment benthos in the ecosystem

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Gray ◽  
Michael Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Functional Groups ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Feeding Guilds ◽  
Benthic Species ◽  
Feeding Mode ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Filter Feeders ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Modes Of Life ◽  
Deposit Feeding

The benthos does not, of course, live in isolation from other parts of the ecosystem. Here we consider the roles that the benthos plays in the system and how the complex interactions that are found can be modelled using ecosystem models. First, we examine methods that allow us to establish food webs based not only on examining each species in the field and in laboratory feeding studies, but also using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to ascertain the likely feeding mode of a species. It is relatively easy to determine the mode of feeding of some benthic organisms (see for example the excellent review of Fauchald and Jumars 1979, although this is now slightly dated and requires revision). Polychaetes have characteristic feeding structures, so one can determine from their morphology whether they are filter feeders, deposit feeders, or predators. Bivalves show similar morphological characteristics and it is easy to determine whether they are deposit or filter feeders. Some polychaetes have large jaws, e.g. the nereids, and one might assume that they are predators. Yet when Nereis vexillosa was studied in detail (Woodin 1977), it was found that it attached pieces of algae to its tube, which grew and were used for food, so-called ´gardening´. Nereids also are able to filter feed by creating a mucous bag and pumping water through their burrows, which filters the water; the mucous bag is then consumed. More recently, studies have shown varied and possibly opportunistic feeding by different benthic species; for example Christensen et al. (2000) showed how the suspension- and deposit-feeding abilities of nereids influenced sediment nutrient fluxes. These studies show that it is perhaps not so straightforward as once thought to interpret feeding mode simply from morphological features. The definition of functional groups and feeding guilds is increasingly used to help explain and interpret ecological functioning (e.g. Elliott et al. 2007 discuss the rationale behind functional groups). The eminent and immensely experienced benthic biologist Tom Pearson (2001) shows in detail that while the concept of functional groups gives us a greater understanding of the benthos, the idea is criticized by some as we do not have sufficient information about feeding types and modes of life of many benthic species.

Consequences of climate and body size on the foraging performance of seed-eating ants

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
UDI SEGEV ◽  
KATJA TIELBÖRGER ◽  
YAEL LUBIN ◽  
JAIME KIGEL
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Foraging Performance ◽  
Seed Eating

scholarly journals Skull and buccal cavity allometry increase mass-specific engulfment capacity in fin whales

2009 ◽  
Vol 277 (1683) ◽  
pp. 861-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy A. Goldbogen ◽  
Jean Potvin ◽  
Robert E. Shadwick
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
The Body ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Energetic Cost ◽  
Tail Region ◽  
Fin Whale ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fin Whales ◽  
Lunge Feeding

Rorqual whales (Balaenopteridae) represent not only some of the largest animals of all time, but also exhibit a wide range in intraspecific and interspecific body size. Balaenopterids are characterized by their extreme lunge-feeding behaviour, a dynamic process that involves the engulfment of a large volume of prey-laden water at a high energetic cost. To investigate the consequences of scale and morphology on lunge-feeding performance, we determined allometric equations for fin whale body dimensions and engulfment capacity. Our analysis demonstrates that larger fin whales have larger skulls and larger buccal cavities relative to body size. Together, these data suggest that engulfment volume is also allometric, increasing with body length as . The positive allometry of the skull is accompanied by negative allometry in the tail region. The relative shortening of the tail may represent a trade-off for investing all growth-related resources in the anterior region of the body. Although enhanced engulfment volume will increase foraging efficiency, the work (energy) required to accelerate the engulfed water mass during engulfment will be relatively higher in larger rorquals. If the mass-specific energetic cost of a lunge increases with body size, it will have major consequences for rorqual foraging ecology and evolution.

Body size and host plant specialization: a relationship from a community of herbivorous insects on Ficus from Papua New Guinea

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vojtech Novotny ◽  
Yves Basset
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Host Specificity ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
Feeding Mode ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest ◽  
Host Plant Specialization

The relationships between body size and host specificity were studied in leaf-chewing and sap-sucking insect communities, including 792 species, feeding locally on 15 species of Ficus in a lowland rain forest in Papua New Guinea. A negative correlation between body size and host specificity, i.e., the tendency for large species to feed on numerous Ficus hosts and those smaller to have a more restricted host range, was found within both the sap-sucking and the leaf-chewing community. A more detailed analysis, which divided herbivorous species into three sap-sucking and four leaf-chewing guilds, revealed that the correlation between body size and host specificity was caused by differences in these traits between the guilds, while no such correlation was detected within any of the guilds. As the changes in feeding mode, defining various guilds, were unique evolutionary events, it is uncertain whether there is a functional relationship between feeding mode, body size and host specificity, or whether their correlation is only coincidental. It is suggested that, in the sap-sucking community at least, the positive body size versus host specificity correlation is a coincidental by-product of the causal relationship between the feeding mode and both the body size and host specificity. The causes of analogous patterns in a leaf-chewing community require further investigation. Methodological problems in the analysis of tropical insect communities, dominated by rare species, are discussed.

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