Nano/microfluidics around phyto- and zooplankton

Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Aquatic Sciences: Global And Regional Perspectives - North Meets South, 22-27 February 2015, Granada, SpainHow do algae often stay so clean, even though most non-living surfaces gather “dirt” and biofilm? Most flowering-plant leaves also stay clean. In air, water and “dirt” films are repelled. Hydrophobic nm- to µm-scale grooves and pillars make leaves superhydrophic (SH), so that the water and dirt roll off in repelled droplets. Most algal cells bear a glycocalyx sculptured by fibrils of exopolymeric substance (EPS) that is often hydrophobic. Whether glycocalyxes are SH is still poorly known. Phytoplankton cultures sometimes increase (by rheology) and sometimes reduce viscosity in laminar capillary flow, possibly by SH drag reduction, a phenomenon now well known from laminar flow in capillaries with SH walls. EPS is also frequently sticky. Some copepods have structures specially to scrape algae and EPS off their feeding appendages. Can sculptured waxy cuticles on copepods show SH and help defeat sticky algal and biofouler attack? Fluid shearing at SH surfaces violates the no-slip assumption, and can produce a slip layer (SL) of up to several µm. Such a SL around feeding appendages and setules could greatly facilitate filter feedingPeer Reviewe