Planktonic encounter rates with non-spherical encounter zones

Formation of multicellular colonies by choanoflagellates increases susceptibility to capture by amoeboid predators

Many heterotrophic microbial eukaryotes are size-selective feeders. Some microorganisms increase their size by forming multicellular colonies. We used choanoflagellates, Salpingoeca helianthica, which can be unicellular or form multicellular colonies, to study the effects of multicellularity on vulnerability to predation by the raptorial protozoan predator, Amoeba proteus, which captures prey with pseudopodia. Videomicrography used to measure the behavior of interacting S. helianthica and A. proteus revealed that large choanoflagellate colonies were more susceptible to capture than were small colonies or single cells. Swimming colonies produced larger flow fields than did swimming unicellular choanoflagellates, and the distance of S. helianthica from A. proteus when pseudopod formation started was greater for colonies than for single cells. Prey size did not affect the number of pseudopodia formed and the time between their formation, pulsatile kinematics and speed of extension by pseudopodia, or percent of prey lost by the predator. S. helianthica did not change swimming speed or execute escape maneuvers in response to being pursued by pseudopodia, so size-selective feeding by A. proteus was due to predator behavior rather than prey escape. Our results do not support the theory that the selective advantage of becoming multicellular by choanoflagellate-like ancestors of animals was reduced susceptibility to protozoan predation.

Homeostatic swimming of zooplankton upon crowding: the case of the copepod Centropages typicus

Crowding has a major impact on the dynamics of many material and biological systems, inducing effects as diverse as glassy dynamics and swarming. While this issue has been deeply investigated for a variety of living organisms, more research remains to be done on the effect of crowding on the behaviour of copepods, the most abundant metazoans on Earth. To this aim, we experimentally investigate the swimming behaviour, used as a dynamic proxy of animal adaptations, of males and females of the calanoid copepod Centropages typicus at different densities of individuals (10, 50 and 100 ind. l^-1) by performing three-dimensional single-organism tracking. We find that the C. typicus motion is surprisingly unaffected by crowding over the investigated density range. Indeed, the mean square displacements as a function of time always show a crossover from ballistic to Fickian regime, with poor variations of the diffusion constant on increasing the density. Close to the crossover, the displacement distributions display exponential tails with a nearly density-independent decay length. The trajectory fractal dimension, D_3D ≅ 1.5, and the recently proposed 'ecological temperature' also remain stable on increasing the individual density. This suggests that, at least over the range of animal densities used, crowding does not impact on the characteristics of C. typicus swimming motion, and that a homeostatic mechanism preserves the stability of its swimming performance.