Hydrodynamic entanglement in the abyss: Morphological adaptations of groups of Euplectella aspergillum
Giacomo Falcucci, Ourania Giannopoulou, Paolo Proia, Giorgio Amati, Maurizio Porfiri · 2026
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Description
Giacomo Falcucci and four co-authors simulate water flow around clusters of glass sponges and find teamwork written into the current. Euplectella aspergillum, a deep-sea sponge with a lattice skeleton, is usually studied alone. Abyss footage, though, shows the sponges growing in bouquets of several bodies. Supercomputer flow physics on grouped models revealed the catch.
Downstream sponges feed better in a bouquet while upstream ones pay nothing for the favor. The passive entanglement lifts feeding, breeding odds, and resilience for the whole cluster. The authors call it the first case of a group-level flow advantage from pure passive interaction.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Giacomo Falcucci, Ourania Giannopoulou, Paolo Proia, Giorgio Amati, Maurizio Porfiri |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 29 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |