Transport of oxygen (O2) is essential for life on Earth as it sustains aerobic organisms respiring O2. Aerobic respiration leads to the local depletion of O2, whereas diffusive and advective transport processes replenish the O2 required for biological activity. There are multiple ways in which organisms interact with or generate flow fields to optimize their O2 supply, but so far, our understanding on these complex interactions is mostly derived from simplified mathematical models. This is mainly because we lack methods that can accurately measure transport processes and O2 concentrations at the same time. Here, we present a novel method that combines microscale ratiometric and lifetime-based O2 imaging with particle velocimetry to determine O2 concentrations and flow fields simultaneously. This method, called “sensPIV”, allows to link O2 uptake to transport processes across a wide range of biological systems. We will present the application of sensPIV to study living corals, mussels and particles and show, for example, that corals use ciliary movement to link zones of photosynthetic O2 production to zones of O2 consumption. By measuring O2 concentrations and flow fields simultaneously, we provide novel insights into the interactions between biological systems and O2 transport that illustrate the connectivity between single organisms and their environment.

Primary Presenter: Soeren Ahmerkamp, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (sahmerka@mpi-bremen.de)

Authors:

Farooq Jalaluddin,   ()

Yuan Cui,   ()

Douglas Brumley,   ()

Cesar Pacherres,   ()

Jasmine Berg,   ()

Roman Stocker,   ()

Marcel Kuypers,   ()

Klaus Koren, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Denmark  (klaus.koren@bio.au.dk)

Lars Behrendt, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden  (lars.behrendt@scilifelab.uu.se)