In print

It's always satisfying to see my work in print, and today, a new paper came out. 

This paper concerns the swimming kinematics of larval snails. In 2018, a Mullineaux lab summer student, Brooke, conducted an experiment with Crepidula fornicata to see how larval swimming behaviors differ based on the presence or absence of food. Snail larvae use the same organ - the velum - for both swimming and feeding, so the trade-offs between these activities can influence how they're distributed in the water column, and by extension, how they disperse in ocean currents. 

Crepidula fornicata larvae swimming in a dish,
photographed using a dissecting microscope

The paper's lead author, Michelle, has a background in fluid mechanics, so she brought this unique perspective to the larval swimming analysis. I worked with Brooke, Michelle, and the other authors to analyze and interpret the data, and I think what we found is pretty cool. Basically, when there's no food involved - larvae are starved and swimming in filtered seawater - the larvae behave isotropically. That means they swim up just as much as they swim down, left just as much as they swim right - it's all symmetrical. But as soon as you feed them or introduce food to the flask, things get a lot less symmetrical. The larvae prioritize feeding, especially when they've been starved, and spend more time going side-to-side to pick up food particles. They also spend more time near the surface. 

It's a small step, but this paper helps us better understand how larvae behave and are distributed in the ocean. You can read it for yourself, in the Journal of Experimental Biology: https://jeb.biologists.org/content/early/2020/11/26/jeb.239178