Behavioral observations and computer simulations of blue crab movement to a chemical source in a controlled turbulent flow

Spatial odor discrimination in the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta (L.)

Flying insects track turbulent odor plumes to find mates, food and egg-laying sites. To maintain contact with the plume, insects are thought to adapt their flight control according to the distribution of odor in the plume using the timing of odor onsets and intervals between odor encounters. Although timing cues are important, few studies have addressed whether insects are capable of deriving spatial information about odor distribution from bilateral comparisons between their antennae in flight. The proboscis extension reflex (PER) associative learning protocol, originally developed to study odor learning in honeybees, was used as a tool to ask if hawkmoths, Manduca sexta, can discriminate between odor stimuli arriving on either antenna. We show moths discriminated the odor arrival side with an accuracy of >70%. Information about spatial distribution of odor stimuli may be available to moths searching for odor sources, opening the possibility that they use both spatial and temporal odor information.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

More than one way to smell ashore - Evolution of the olfactory pathway in terrestrial malacostracan crustaceans

Crustaceans provide a fascinating opportunity for studying adaptations to a terrestrial lifestyle because within this group, the conquest of land has occurred at least ten times convergently. The evolutionary transition from water to land demands various morphological and physiological adaptations of tissues and organs including the sensory and nervous system. In this review, we aim to compare the brain architecture between selected terrestrial and closely related marine representatives of the crustacean taxa Amphipoda, Isopoda, Brachyura, and Anomala with an emphasis on the elements of the olfactory pathway including receptor molecules. Our comparison of neuroanatomical structures between terrestrial members and their close aquatic relatives suggests that during the convergent evolution of terrestrial life-styles, the elements of the olfactory pathway were subject to different morphological transformations. In terrestrial anomalans (Coenobitidae), the elements of the primary olfactory pathway (antennules and olfactory lobes) are in general considerably enlarged whereas they are smaller in terrestrial brachyurans compared to their aquatic relatives. Studies on the repertoire of receptor molecules in Coenobitidae do not point to specific terrestrial adaptations but suggest that perireceptor events - processes in the receptor environment before the stimuli bind - may play an important role for aerial olfaction in this group. In terrestrial members of amphipods (Amphipoda: Talitridae) as well as of isopods (Isopoda: Oniscidea), however, the antennules and olfactory sensilla (aesthetascs) are largely reduced and miniaturized. Consequently, their primary olfactory processing centers are suggested to have been lost during the evolution of a life on land. Nevertheless, in terrestrial Peracarida, the (second) antennae as well as their associated tritocerebral processing structures are presumed to compensate for this loss or rather considerable reduction of the (deutocerebral) primary olfactory pathway. We conclude that after the evolutionary transition from water to land, it is not trivial for arthropods to establish aerial olfaction. If we consider insects as an ingroup of Crustacea, then the Coenobitidae and Insecta may be seen as the most successful crustacean representatives in this respect.

Modeling the odor-landscape resulting from the pumping behavior of bivalve clams in the presence of predators

Motivated by experimental findings, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to investigate whether the clam Mercenaria mercenaria may alter its cue downstream variability by an exhalant random pumping behavior. This behavior was hypothesized to occur in the presence of predator chemical signals in order to prevent successful tracking by the predator. Simulated downstream flow and mixing conditions derived from the random nature of the clam exhalant jet in a crossflow were analyzed by computing an intermittency factor, determining the field of finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs) and identifying the resulting Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs). Numerical simulations illustrate that the effectiveness of a fluctuating exhalant jet to prevent downstream tracking by a crab, depends on the ratio of the exhalant jet to the crossflow. Specifically, the clam could effectively enhance the downstream dispersion to prevent tracking, but only in the range of parameters where LCSs are generated (jet-to-crossflow ratio ≥ 1). Then, the probability of detection is reduced with respect to the case of a less fluctuating exhalant jet.

One antenna, two antennae, big antennae, small: total antennae length, not bilateral symmetry, predicts odor-tracking performance in the American cockroach Periplaneta americana

Determining the location of a particular stimulus is often crucial to an animal's survival. One way to determine the local distribution of an odor is to make simultaneous comparisons across multiple sensors. If the sensors detect differences in the distribution of an odor in space, the animal can then steer toward the source. American cockroaches, Periplaneta americana, have 4 cm long antennae and are thought to track odor plumes using a spatial sampling strategy, comparing the amount of odor detected between these bilateral sensors. However, it is not uncommon for cockroaches to lose parts of their antennae and still track a wind-borne odor to its source. We examined whether bilateral odor input is necessary to locate an odor source in a wind-driven environment and how the loss of increasing lengths of the antennae affects odor tracking. The tracking performances of individuals with two bilaterally symmetrical antennae of decreasing length were compared with antennal length-matched individuals with one antenna. Cockroaches with one antenna were generally able to track an odor plume to its source. In fact, the performances of unilaterally antennectomized individuals were statistically identical to those of their bilaterally symmetrical counterparts when the combined length of both antennae equaled the length of the single antenna of the antennectomized individuals. This suggests that the total length of available antennae influences odor tracking performance more than any specific piece of antenna, and that they may be doing something more complex than a simple bilateral comparison between their antennae. The possibility of an antenna-topic map is discussed.

Learning to rapidly re-contact the lost plume in chemical plume tracing

Maintaining contact between the robot and plume is significant in chemical plume tracing (CPT). In the time immediately following the loss of chemical detection during the process of CPT, Track-Out activities bias the robot heading relative to the upwind direction, expecting to rapidly re-contact the plume. To determine the bias angle used in the Track-Out activity, we propose an online instance-based reinforcement learning method, namely virtual trail following (VTF). In VTF, action-value is generalized from recently stored instances of successful Track-Out activities. We also propose a collaborative VTF (cVTF) method, in which multiple robots store their own instances, and learn from the stored instances, in the same database. The proposed VTF and cVTF methods are compared with biased upwind surge (BUS) method, in which all Track-Out activities utilize an offline optimized universal bias angle, in an indoor environment with three different airflow fields. With respect to our experimental conditions, VTF and cVTF show stronger adaptability to different airflow environments than BUS, and furthermore, cVTF yields higher success rates and time-efficiencies than VTF.

Odor-conditioned rheotaxis of the sea lamprey: modeling, analysis and validation

Mechanisms for orienting toward and locating an odor source are sought in both biology and engineering. Chemical ecology studies have demonstrated that adult female sea lamprey show rheotaxis in response to a male pheromone with dichotomous outcomes: sexually mature females locate the source of the pheromone whereas immature females swim by the source and continue moving upstream. Here we introduce a simple switching mechanism modeled after odor-conditioned rheotaxis for the sea lamprey as they search for the source of a pheromone in a one-dimensional riverine environment. In this strategy, the females move upstream only if they detect that the pheromone concentration is higher than a threshold value and drifts down (by turning off control action to save energy) otherwise. In addition, we propose various uncertainty models such as measurement noise, actuator disturbance, and a probabilistic model of a concentration field in turbulent flow. Based on the proposed model with uncertainties, a convergence analysis showed that with this simplistic switching mechanism, the lamprey converges to the source location on average in spite of all such uncertainties. Furthermore, a slightly modified model and its extensive simulation results explain the behaviors of immature female lamprey near the source location.

Bioinspired algorithm for autonomous sensor-driven guidance in turbulent chemical plumes

We designed and implemented a control algorithm for sensor-mediated chemical plume tracking in a turbulent flow environment. In our design, we focused on development of a signal processing strategy capable of replicating behavioral responses of actively tracking blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) to chemical stimuli. The control algorithm is evaluated in a hardware platform that allows motion in two directions (i.e. forward-back and left-right). The geometric arrangement of the sensor array is inspired by the location of blue crab sensor populations. Upstream motion is induced by a binary response to supra-threshold spikes of concentration, and cross-stream steering is controlled by contrast between bilaterally-separated sensors. Like animal strategies, the developed control algorithm is dynamic. This property allows the algorithm to function effectively in the highly irregular turbulent environment and produces adaptive adjustments of motion to minimize the distance to the source of a plume. Tracking trials indicate that roughly 80% of the tracks successfully stop near the plume source location. Both success rate and movement patterns of the tracker compare favorably to that of blue crabs searching for odorant plume sources, thus suggesting that our sensory-mediated behavior hypothesis are generally accurate and that the associated tracking mechanisms may be successfully implemented in hardware.

Staying the course: chemical signal spatial properties and concentration mediate cross-stream motion in turbulent plumes

This study examined the role of broadly distributed sensor populations in chemosensory searching, especially cross-stream heading adjustment. We used three-dimensional laser-induced fluorescence to collect chemical concentration data simultaneously with behavior observations of actively tracking blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus). Our analysis indicates that the spatial distribution of the odorant concentration field is necessary and sufficient to mediate correct cross-stream motion, although concentration provides information that supplements that obtained from the spatial distribution. Crab movement is continually adjusted to maintain an upstream heading, with corrections toward the source modulated only in the presence of chemical cues. Crabs detect and respond to shifts in the position of the center-of-mass (COM) of the odorant concentration distribution as small as 5% of the leg span, which corresponds to ∼0.8–0.9 cm. The reaction time after a 5% threshold shift in the position of the COM is in the range of 2–4 s. Data also indicate that these steering responses are dependent on stimulus history or other characteristics of the plume, with crabs taking longer to respond in conditions with large-scale spatial meanders. Although cross-stream motion is determined by chemical signal inputs to receptors on the walking legs, crabs do make rotational movements in response to chemical signals impinging on the antennules. These rotational movements do not affect the direction of travel, but rather, determine the crab's body angle with respect to the flow. Interestingly, these body angles seem to represent a compromise between reducing drag and obtaining better chemical signal information, and this trade-off is resolved differently under different plume conditions.

Environmental and physiological controls of blue crab avoidance behavior during exposure to hypoxia

Generalizing the impacts of hypoxia on aquatic animal populations is difficult due to differences in behavioral and physiological responses among individuals as well as varying hydrodynamics of hypoxic events. Information on which environmental cues animals use to avoid hypoxia and how abiotic covariates and physiology influence avoidance behavior is lacking. Our laboratory flume studies quantified the interacting effects of hydrography (dissolved oxygen [DO], temperature, and salinity), hydrodynamics (rate of DO decline and current speed), and physiological state on avoidance behaviors of blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus). Changes in DO stimulated increased rates of movement, regardless of whether the change resulted in hypoxia. Increased rates of DO decline stimulated faster movement rates under hypoxic conditions because crabs spent less time in hypoxia compared to crabs under conditions of slow rate of DO decline. Blue crabs that had hemocyanin structures with a high affinity for O(2) (hypoxia-tolerant) were less active under hypoxic conditions than conspecifics with hemocyanins with a low O(2) affinity, suggesting that physiological state influences behavioral responses to stressors. These results provide a mechanistic understanding of how physiological acclimation and hypoxia hydrodynamics may influence population dynamics.

The sensory ecology of ocean navigation

How animals guide themselves across vast expanses of open ocean, sometimes to specific geographic areas, has remained an enduring mystery of behavioral biology. In this review we briefly contrast underwater oceanic navigation with terrestrial navigation and summarize the advantages and constraints of different approaches used to analyze animal navigation in the sea. In addition, we highlight studies and techniques that have begun to unravel the sensory cues that underlie navigation in sea turtles, salmon and other ocean migrants. Environmental signals of importance include geomagnetic, chemical and hydrodynamic cues, perhaps supplemented in some cases by celestial cues or other sources of information that remain to be discovered. An interesting similarity between sea turtles and salmon is that both have been hypothesized to complete long-distance reproductive migrations using navigational systems composed of two different suites of mechanisms that function sequentially over different spatial scales. The basic organization of navigation in these two groups of animals may be functionally similar, and perhaps also representative of other long-distance ocean navigators.

Dual antennular chemosensory pathways can mediate orientation by Caribbean spiny lobsters in naturalistic flow conditions

Benthic crustaceans rely on chemical stimuli to mediate a diversity of behaviors ranging from food localization and predator avoidance to den selection, conspecific interactions and grooming. To accomplish these tasks, Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) rely on a complex chemosensory system that is organized into two parallel chemosensory pathways originating in diverse populations of antennular sensilla and projecting to distinct neuropils within the brain. Chemosensory neurons associated with aesthetasc sensilla project to the glomerular olfactory lobes (the aesthetasc pathway), whereas those associated with non-aesthetasc sensilla project to the stratified lateral antennular neuropils and the unstructured median antennular neuropil (the non-aesthetasc pathway). Although the pathways differ anatomically, unique roles for each in odor-mediated behaviors have not been established. This study investigates the importance of each pathway for orientation by determining whether aesthetasc or non-aesthetasc sensilla are necessary and sufficient for a lobster to locate the source of a 2 m-distant food odor stimulus in a 5000-liter seawater flume under controlled flow conditions. To assess the importance of each pathway for this task, we selectively ablated specific populations of sensilla on the antennular flagella and compared the searching behavior of ablated animals to that of intact controls. Our results show that either the aesthetasc or the non-aesthetasc pathway alone is sufficient to mediate the behavior and that neither pathway alone is necessary. Under the current experimental conditions, there appears to be a high degree of functional overlap between the pathways for food localization behavior.