Directional flow sensing by passively stable larvae

Mollusc larvae have a stable, velum-up orientation that may influence how they sense and react to hydrodynamic signals applied in different directions. Directional sensing abilities and responses could affect how a larva interacts with anisotropic fluid motions, including those in feeding currents and in boundary layers encountered during settlement. Oyster larvae (Crassostrea virginica) were exposed to simple shear in a Couette device and to solid-body rotation in a single rotating cylinder. Both devices were operated in two different orientations, one with the axis of rotation parallel to the gravity vector, and one with the axis perpendicular. Larvae and flow were observed simultaneously with near-infrared particle-image velocimetry, and behaviors were quantified as a response to strain rate, vorticity, and centripetal acceleration. Only flows rotating about a horizontal axis elicited the diving response observed previously for oyster larvae in turbulence. The results provide strong evidence that the turbulence-sensing mechanism relies on gravity-detecting organs (statocysts) rather than mechanosensors (cilia). Flow sensing with statocysts sets oyster larvae apart from zooplankters such as copepods and protists that use external mechanosensors in sensing spatial velocity gradients generated by prey or predators. Sensing flow-induced changes in orientation, rather than flow deformation, would enable more efficient control of vertical movements. Statocysts provide larvae with a mechanism of maintaining their upward swimming when rotated by vortices and initiating dives toward the seabed in response to the strong turbulence associated with adult habitats.