Analysis and modelling of swimming behaviour in Oxyrrhis marina

Oxyrrhis marina is a heterotrophic dinoflagellate that swims in helical paths in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. It is also known to react to various environmental stimuli and resultant changes in its swimming patterns have been widely observed. Understanding this swimming behaviour and provid...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plankton research 2011-04, Vol.33 (4), p.641-649
Main Authors: Boakes, D. E., Codling, E. A., Thorn, G. J., Steinke, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Oxyrrhis marina
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Oxyrrhis marina is a heterotrophic dinoflagellate that swims in helical paths in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. It is also known to react to various environmental stimuli and resultant changes in its swimming patterns have been widely observed. Understanding this swimming behaviour and providing tools for quantifying swimming-related parameters will aid in interpreting its response to environmental stimuli, including the presence of food items and chemical cues. We review the literature on the analysis of swimming in O. marina. We also outline the related fields of random walks, path analysis and simulation of individual-based movement where relevant to O. marina. We then discuss some of the problems associated with trying to understand 3D helical movement through analysis of two-dimensional (2D) video microscopy data. We emphasize that the current models in the literature cannot accurately simulate helical walks and conclude that O. marina would be a suitable candidate for establishing a standard 3D framework that can be used as a tool to characterize observed movement patterns in the future.
ISSN:0142-7873
1464-3774
DOI:10.1093/plankt/fbq136