Related papers: Top marine predators track Lagrangian coherent str…
A complex interplay between species governs the evolution of spatial patterns in ecology. An open problem in the biological sciences is characterising spatio-temporal data and understanding how changes at the local scale affect global…
We have investigated the organization and dynamics of the large turbulent structures that develop in the logarithmic and outer layers of high-Reynolds-number wall flows. These structures have sizes comparable to the flow thickness and…
Lagrangian data assimilation is a complex problem in oceanic and atmospheric modeling. Tracking drifters in large-scale geophysical flows can involve uncertainty in drifter location, complex inertial effects, and other factors which make…
Coherent filaments at the ocean surface often appear to be transient watermass boundaries, where currents converge, surfactants accumulate, and frontal structure at depth can possibly delineate enhanced biological activity in the upper…
We present a multi-scale modeling and simulation framework for low-Reynolds number hydrodynamics of shape-changing immersed objects, e.g., biological microswimmers and active surfaces. The key idea is to consider principal shape changes as…
Flows over remarkably long distances are crucial to the functioning of many organisms, across all kingdoms of life. Coordinated flows are fundamental to power deformations, required for migration or development, or to spread resources and…
How predictable is the next move of an animal? Specifically, which factors govern the short- and long-term motion patterns and the overall dynamics of landbound, plant-eating animals and ruminants in particular? To answer this question, we…
Sea urchin feeding fronts are a striking example of spatial pattern formation in an ecological system. If it is assumed that urchins are asocial, and that they move randomly, then the formation of these dense fronts is an apparent paradox.…
Precisely how ecological factors influence animal social structure is far from clear. We explore this question using an agent-based model inspired by the fission-fusion society of Spider monkeys (Ateles spp). Our model introduces a…
A theoretical framework is developed for understanding the transient growth and propagation characteristics of thermodynamically coupled, meridional mode-like structures in the tropics. The model consists of a Gill-Matsuno type steady…
Mixing in the Bay of Bengal, driven by altimetry derived daily geostrophic surface currents, is studied on subseasonal timescales. Hovm{\"o}ller and wavenumber-frequency diagrams with power spectra confirm the multiscale nature of the flow.…
We review and discuss some different techniques for describing local dispersion properties in fluids. A recent Lagrangian diagnostics, based on the Finite Scale Lyapunov Exponent (FSLE), is presented and compared to the Finite Time Lyapunov…
Fish schools and bird flocks exhibit complex collective dynamics whose self-organization principles are largely unknown. The influence of hydrodynamics on such collectives has been relatively unexplored theoretically, in part due to the…
We performed large-eddy simulations of the flow over a typical two-dimensional dune geometry at laboratory scale (the Reynolds number based on the average channel height and mean velocity is 18,900) using the Lagrangian dynamic…
The hydrodynamics of a flagellated microorganism is investigated when swimming close to a planar free-slip surface by means of numerical solu- tions of the Stokes equations obtained via a Boundary Element Method. Depending on the initial…
Predators and their foraging strategies often determine ecosystem structure and function. Yet, the role of protozoan predators in microbial soil ecosystems remains elusive despite the importance of these ecosystems to global biogeochemical…
Macroscopic active matter systems, such as bristle bots, provide a compelling platform for investigating nonequilibrium dynamics at highly visible scales. To fully leverage their accessibility, accurate mathematical models are needed to…
The dispersion of a passive scalar by wall turbulence, in the limit of infinite Peclet number, is analyzed using frozen velocity fields from the DNS by our group. The Lagrangian trajectories of fluid particles in those fields are integrated…
Animals and insects showcase remarkably robust and adept navigational abilities, up to literally circumnavigating the globe. Primary progress in robotics inspired by these natural systems has occurred in two areas: highly theoretical…
We present the hydrodynamic theory of coherent collective motion ("flocking") at a solid-liquid interface, and many of its predictions for experiment. We find that such systems are stable, and have long-range orientational order, over a…