Escape from viscosity: the kinematics and hydrodynamics of copepod foraging and escape swimming.

Feeding and escape swimming in adult females of the calanoid copepod Temora longicornis Müller were investigated and compared. Swimming velocities were calculated using a 3-D filming setup. Foraging velocities ranged between 2 and 6 mm s(-1), while maximum velocities of up to 80 mm s(-1) were reached during escape responses. Foraging took place at Reynolds numbers between 2 and 6, indicating that viscous forces are considerable during this swimming mode. Inertial forces are much more important during escape responses, when Reynolds numbers of more than 100 are reached. High-speed film recordings at 500 frames s(-1) of the motion pattern of the feeding appendages and the escape movement of the swimming legs revealed that the two swimming modes are essentially very different. While foraging, the first three mouth appendages (antennae, mandibular palps and maxillules) create a backwards motion of water with a metachronal beating pattern. During escape movements the mouth appendages stop moving and the swimming legs beat in a very fast metachronal rhythm, accelerating a jet of water backwards. The large antennules are folded backwards, resulting in a streamlined body shape. Particle image velocimetry analysis of the flow around foraging and escaping copepods revealed that during foraging an asymmetrical vortex system is created on the ventral side of the animal. The feeding motion is steady over a long period of time. The rate of energy dissipation due to viscous friction relates directly to the energetic cost of the feeding current. During escape responses a vortex ring appears behind the animal, which dissipates over time. Several seconds after cessation of swimming leg movements, energy dissipation can still be measured. During escape responses the rate of energy dissipation due to viscous friction increases by up to two orders of magnitude compared to the rate when foraging.