Photogyrotactic Concentration of a Population of Swimming Microalgae Across a Porous Layer

The light environment controls the swimming of microalgae through a light-seeking and avoiding behaviour, which is known as phototaxis. In this work, we exploit phototaxis to control the migration and concentration of populations of the soil microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. By imaging a suspension of these microalgae in a cuvette illuminated from above by blue light, we study how phototaxis changes the stability of the suspension and demonstrate how a thin, porous layer at the top of the cuvette prevents phototaxing microalgae from sinking, leading to the up-concentration of the microalgae in the region above the porous layer. We discuss the potential implications of our findings for microalgae in biotechnological applications and the natural environment.</jats:p

Photogyrotactic Concentration of a Population of Swimming Microalgae Across a Porous Layer

The light environment controls the swimming of microalgae through a light-seeking and avoiding behaviour, which is known as phototaxis. In this work, we exploit phototaxis to control the migration and concentration of populations of the soil microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. By imaging a suspension of these microalgae in a cuvette illuminated from above by blue light, we study how phototaxis changes the stability of the suspension and demonstrate how a thin, porous layer at the top of the cuvette prevents phototaxing microalgae from sinking, leading to the up-concentration of the microalgae in the region above the porous layer. We discuss the potential implications of our findings for microalgae in biotechnological applications and the natural environment.</jats:p

Helical and oscillatory microswimmer motility statistics from differential dynamic microscopy

The experimental characterisation of the swimming statistics of populations of microorganisms or artificially propelled particles is essential for understanding the physics of active systems and their exploitation. Here, we construct a theoretical framework to extract information on the three-dimensional motion of micro-swimmers from the Intermediate Scattering Function (ISF) obtained from Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM). We derive theoretical expressions for the ISF of helical and oscillatory breaststroke swimmers, and test the theoretical framework by applying it to video sequences generated from simulated swimmers with precisely-controlled dynamics. We then discuss how our theory can be applied to the experimental study of helical swimmers, such as active Janus colloids or suspensions of motile microalgae. In particular, we show how fitting DDM data to a simple, non-helical ISF model can be used to derive three-dimensional helical motility parameters, which can therefore be obtained without specialised 3D microscopy equipment. Finally, we discus how our results aid the study of active matter and describe applications of biological and ecological importance

Resonant alignment of microswimmer trajectories in oscillatory shear flows

Oscillatory flows are commonly experienced by swimming micro-organisms in the environment, industrial applications, and rheological investigations. We characterize experimentally the response of the alga Dunaliella salina to oscillatory shear flows and report the surprising discovery that algal swimming trajectories orient perpendicular to the flow-shear plane. The ordering has the characteristics of a resonance in the driving parameter space. The behavior is qualitatively reproduced by a simple model and simulations accounting for helical swimming, suggesting a mechanism for ordering and criteria for the resonant amplitude and frequency. The implications of this work for active oscillatory rheology and industrial algal processing are discussed.O.A.C., W.C.K.P., M.D.H., and M.A.B. acknowledge support from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. O.A.C. further acknowledges support from the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability and a Royal Society Research Grant; M.D.H. support from the Leverhulme Trust. O.A.C. and M.A.B. also acknowledge an EPSRC Mobility Grant (No. EP/J004847/1) and W.C.K.P. acknowledges the Programme Grant (No. EP/J007404/1) and ERC Advanced Grant (No. ERC-2013-AdG 340877-PHYSAPS)