Speaker: Peter Hinow (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)
Title: Tiny Giants - Mathematics Looks at Zooplankton
Abstract: Zooplankton is an immensely diverse group of organisms occupying every corner of the oceans, seas, and freshwater bodies on earth. They form a crucial link between autotrophic phytoplankton and higher trophic levels such as crustaceans, mollusks, fish, and marine mammals. Changing water temperatures, salinities and decreasing pH values currently create monumental challenges to their well-being. A significant subgroup of zooplankton are crustaceans of sizes between 1 and 10 mm. They have extremely acute senses that allow them to navigate their surroundings, escape predators, find food and mate. In a series of works with Rudi Strickler (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) we have investigated various behaviors of crustacean zooplankton. These include the communication by sex pheromones in the copepod Temora longicornis and the visualization of the feeding current of the copepod Leptodiaptomus sicilis. In these studies, we use tools from optics, ecology, computational fluid dynamics, and computational neuroscience.