Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position

For animals, being a member of a group provides various advantages, such as reduced vulnerability to predators, increased foraging opportunities and reduced energetic costs of locomotion. In moving groups such as fish schools, there are benefits of group membership for trailing individuals, who can...

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Main Authors:	Marras, Stefano, Killen, Shaun S., Lindström, Jan, McKenzie, David J., Steffensen, John F., Domenici, Paolo
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4293471/

id	pubmed-4293471
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-42934712015-01-21 Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position Marras, Stefano Killen, Shaun S. Lindström, Jan McKenzie, David J. Steffensen, John F. Domenici, Paolo Original Paper For animals, being a member of a group provides various advantages, such as reduced vulnerability to predators, increased foraging opportunities and reduced energetic costs of locomotion. In moving groups such as fish schools, there are benefits of group membership for trailing individuals, who can reduce the cost of movement by exploiting the flow patterns generated by the individuals swimming ahead of them. However, whether positions relative to the closest neighbours (e.g. ahead, sided by side or behind) modulate the individual energetic cost of swimming is still unknown. Here, we addressed these questions in grey mullet Liza aurata by measuring tail-beat frequency and amplitude of 15 focal fish, swimming in separate schools, while swimming in isolation and in various positions relative to their closest neighbours, at three speeds. Our results demonstrate that, in a fish school, individuals in any position have reduced costs of swimming, compared to when they swim at the same speed but alone. Although fish swimming behind their neighbours save the most energy, even fish swimming ahead of their nearest neighbour were able to gain a net energetic benefit over swimming in isolation, including those swimming at the front of a school. Interestingly, this energetic saving was greatest at the lowest swimming speed measured in our study. Because any member of a school gains an energetic benefit compared to swimming alone, we suggest that the benefits of membership in moving groups may be more strongly linked to reducing the costs of locomotion than previously appreciated. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2014-10-30 2015 /pmc/articles/PMC4293471/ /pubmed/25620833 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1834-4 Text en © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Marras, Stefano Killen, Shaun S. Lindström, Jan McKenzie, David J. Steffensen, John F. Domenici, Paolo
spellingShingle	Marras, Stefano Killen, Shaun S. Lindström, Jan McKenzie, David J. Steffensen, John F. Domenici, Paolo Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
author_facet	Marras, Stefano Killen, Shaun S. Lindström, Jan McKenzie, David J. Steffensen, John F. Domenici, Paolo
author_sort	Marras, Stefano
title	Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
title_short	Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
title_full	Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
title_fullStr	Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
title_full_unstemmed	Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
title_sort	fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position
description	For animals, being a member of a group provides various advantages, such as reduced vulnerability to predators, increased foraging opportunities and reduced energetic costs of locomotion. In moving groups such as fish schools, there are benefits of group membership for trailing individuals, who can reduce the cost of movement by exploiting the flow patterns generated by the individuals swimming ahead of them. However, whether positions relative to the closest neighbours (e.g. ahead, sided by side or behind) modulate the individual energetic cost of swimming is still unknown. Here, we addressed these questions in grey mullet Liza aurata by measuring tail-beat frequency and amplitude of 15 focal fish, swimming in separate schools, while swimming in isolation and in various positions relative to their closest neighbours, at three speeds. Our results demonstrate that, in a fish school, individuals in any position have reduced costs of swimming, compared to when they swim at the same speed but alone. Although fish swimming behind their neighbours save the most energy, even fish swimming ahead of their nearest neighbour were able to gain a net energetic benefit over swimming in isolation, including those swimming at the front of a school. Interestingly, this energetic saving was greatest at the lowest swimming speed measured in our study. Because any member of a school gains an energetic benefit compared to swimming alone, we suggest that the benefits of membership in moving groups may be more strongly linked to reducing the costs of locomotion than previously appreciated.
publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4293471/
_version_	1613176376923258880

Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position

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