Collective behaviour of fish in the presence and absence of flow
Collective behaviour of fish in the presence and absence of flow
Spatial patterns in moving fish shoals originate from social interactions and are driven by factors that benefit individuals, such as predator avoidance or reduced energy expenditure. How shoaling is influenced by the presence and absence of a flow field is only partially understood. Adopting a reductionist approach, time spent shoaling, shoal structure and information transfer between pairs (the smallest subsystem of a shoal) of Eurasian minnows, Phoxinus phoxinus, were investigated in a recirculating flume in the absence (control) and presence of flow (low and high). Minnows spent more time shoaling under high-flow conditions. The pairs tended to swim in a tandem and side-by-side configuration under static and high flow, respectively, while under low flow, the neighbour's position was more uniformly distributed around the focal fish. Our approach involved analysis of fish accelerations and velocity correlations and indicated that, with the potential for hydrodynamic masking in flowing water, the relative positions adopted reflect the individual's propensity to increase information transfer with its neighbour by visual means so that an energy-efficient configuration can be maintained. Conversely, when the energetic benefits of a side-by-side configuration are lost in the absence of flow, fish limit the costs of the partial visual impediment (on one side) imposed by the presence of a close neighbour by employing a ‘follow-the-leader’ tactic.
group behaviour, hydrodynamics, information transfer, schooling, shoaling, swimming efficiency
151-159
De Bie, Jasper
064ae5a8-77bf-4197-9496-9540e26a585a
Manes, Costantino
7d9d5123-4d1b-4760-beff-d82fe0bd0acf
Kemp, Paul
9e33fba6-cccf-4eb5-965b-b70e72b11cd7
September 2020
De Bie, Jasper
064ae5a8-77bf-4197-9496-9540e26a585a
Manes, Costantino
7d9d5123-4d1b-4760-beff-d82fe0bd0acf
Kemp, Paul
9e33fba6-cccf-4eb5-965b-b70e72b11cd7
De Bie, Jasper, Manes, Costantino and Kemp, Paul
(2020)
Collective behaviour of fish in the presence and absence of flow.
Animal Behaviour, 167, .
(doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.07.003).
Abstract
Spatial patterns in moving fish shoals originate from social interactions and are driven by factors that benefit individuals, such as predator avoidance or reduced energy expenditure. How shoaling is influenced by the presence and absence of a flow field is only partially understood. Adopting a reductionist approach, time spent shoaling, shoal structure and information transfer between pairs (the smallest subsystem of a shoal) of Eurasian minnows, Phoxinus phoxinus, were investigated in a recirculating flume in the absence (control) and presence of flow (low and high). Minnows spent more time shoaling under high-flow conditions. The pairs tended to swim in a tandem and side-by-side configuration under static and high flow, respectively, while under low flow, the neighbour's position was more uniformly distributed around the focal fish. Our approach involved analysis of fish accelerations and velocity correlations and indicated that, with the potential for hydrodynamic masking in flowing water, the relative positions adopted reflect the individual's propensity to increase information transfer with its neighbour by visual means so that an energy-efficient configuration can be maintained. Conversely, when the energetic benefits of a side-by-side configuration are lost in the absence of flow, fish limit the costs of the partial visual impediment (on one side) imposed by the presence of a close neighbour by employing a ‘follow-the-leader’ tactic.
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Accepted/In Press date: 20 May 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 July 2020
Published date: September 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We thank the members of the ICER team who assisted during trials. This work was supported by the EPSRC on DTP Grant 11, with additional funding from the Environment Agency (J.d.B.). It was further supported from ‘ Compagnia di San Paolo ’ (project: ‘Attrarre Docenti di qualità tramite Starting Grant’) (C.M.). We also thank two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions that helped improve our manuscript.
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© 2020
Keywords:
group behaviour, hydrodynamics, information transfer, schooling, shoaling, swimming efficiency
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 440971
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/440971
ISSN: 0003-3472
PURE UUID: 1c232a1b-6f99-4e56-a0f3-9aae65fca3f0
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Date deposited: 26 May 2020 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:36
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Author:
Jasper De Bie
Author:
Costantino Manes
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