Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales

The scale dependence of locomotor factors has long been studied in comparative biomechanics, but remains poorly understood for animals at the upper extremes of body size. Rorqual baleen whales include the largest animals, but we lack basic kinematic data about their movements and behavior below the...

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Published in:Journal of Experimental Biology
Main Authors: Gough, William T., Segre, Paolo S., Bierlich, K. C., Cade, David E., Potvin, Jean, Fish, Frank E., Dale, Julian, di Clemente, Jacopo, Friedlaender, Ari S., Johnston, David W., Kahane-Rapport, Shirel R., Kennedy, John, Long, John H., Oudejans, Machiel, Penry, Gwenith, Savoca, Matthew S., Simon, Malene, Videsen, Simone K. A., Visser, Fleur, Wiley, David N., Goldbogen, Jeremy O.
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: Digital Commons @ West Chester University 2019
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Online Access:https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/bio_facpub/61
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204172
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/context/bio_facpub/article/1062/viewcontent/jeb204172.full.pdf
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spelling ftwestchesteruni:oai:digitalcommons.wcupa.edu:bio_facpub-1062 2023-06-11T04:10:30+02:00 Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales Gough, William T. Segre, Paolo S. Bierlich, K. C. Cade, David E. Potvin, Jean Fish, Frank E. Dale, Julian di Clemente, Jacopo Friedlaender, Ari S. Johnston, David W. Kahane-Rapport, Shirel R. Kennedy, John Long, John H. Oudejans, Machiel Penry, Gwenith Savoca, Matthew S. Simon, Malene Videsen, Simone K. A. Visser, Fleur Wiley, David N. Goldbogen, Jeremy O. 2019-10-01T07:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/bio_facpub/61 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204172 https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/context/bio_facpub/article/1062/viewcontent/jeb204172.full.pdf unknown Digital Commons @ West Chester University https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/bio_facpub/61 doi:10.1242/jeb.204172 https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/context/bio_facpub/article/1062/viewcontent/jeb204172.full.pdf Biology Faculty Publications Morphometrics Hydrodynamic modeling Unoccupied aerial systems Locomotion Frequency Speed Biomechanics text 2019 ftwestchesteruni https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204172 2023-05-06T22:45:54Z The scale dependence of locomotor factors has long been studied in comparative biomechanics, but remains poorly understood for animals at the upper extremes of body size. Rorqual baleen whales include the largest animals, but we lack basic kinematic data about their movements and behavior below the ocean surface. Here, we combined morphometrics from aerial drone photogrammetry, whale-borne inertial sensing tag data and hydrodynamic modeling to study the locomotion of five rorqual species. We quantified changes in tail oscillatory frequency and cruising speed for individual whales spanning a threefold variation in body length, corresponding to an order of magnitude variation in estimated body mass. Our results showed that oscillatory frequency decreases with body length (proportional to length(-0.5)(3)) while cruising speed remains roughly invariant (proportional to length(0.08)) at 2 m s(-1). We compared these measured results for oscillatory frequency against simplified models of an oscillating cantilever beam (proportional to length(-1)) and an optimized oscillating Strouhal vortex generator (proportional to length(-1)). The difference between our length-scaling exponent and the simplified models suggests that animals are often swimming non-optimally in order to feed or perform other routine behaviors. Cruising speed aligned more closely with an estimate of the optimal speed required to minimize the energetic cost of swimming (proportional to length(-1)). Our results are among the first to elucidate the relationships between both oscillatory frequency and cruising speed and body size for free-swimming animals at the largest scale. Text baleen whales Digital Commons @ West Chester University Rorqual ENVELOPE(-62.311,-62.311,-65.648,-65.648) Journal of Experimental Biology
institution Open Polar
collection Digital Commons @ West Chester University
op_collection_id ftwestchesteruni
language unknown
topic Morphometrics
Hydrodynamic modeling
Unoccupied aerial systems
Locomotion
Frequency
Speed
Biomechanics
spellingShingle Morphometrics
Hydrodynamic modeling
Unoccupied aerial systems
Locomotion
Frequency
Speed
Biomechanics
Gough, William T.
Segre, Paolo S.
Bierlich, K. C.
Cade, David E.
Potvin, Jean
Fish, Frank E.
Dale, Julian
di Clemente, Jacopo
Friedlaender, Ari S.
Johnston, David W.
Kahane-Rapport, Shirel R.
Kennedy, John
Long, John H.
Oudejans, Machiel
Penry, Gwenith
Savoca, Matthew S.
Simon, Malene
Videsen, Simone K. A.
Visser, Fleur
Wiley, David N.
Goldbogen, Jeremy O.
Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
topic_facet Morphometrics
Hydrodynamic modeling
Unoccupied aerial systems
Locomotion
Frequency
Speed
Biomechanics
description The scale dependence of locomotor factors has long been studied in comparative biomechanics, but remains poorly understood for animals at the upper extremes of body size. Rorqual baleen whales include the largest animals, but we lack basic kinematic data about their movements and behavior below the ocean surface. Here, we combined morphometrics from aerial drone photogrammetry, whale-borne inertial sensing tag data and hydrodynamic modeling to study the locomotion of five rorqual species. We quantified changes in tail oscillatory frequency and cruising speed for individual whales spanning a threefold variation in body length, corresponding to an order of magnitude variation in estimated body mass. Our results showed that oscillatory frequency decreases with body length (proportional to length(-0.5)(3)) while cruising speed remains roughly invariant (proportional to length(0.08)) at 2 m s(-1). We compared these measured results for oscillatory frequency against simplified models of an oscillating cantilever beam (proportional to length(-1)) and an optimized oscillating Strouhal vortex generator (proportional to length(-1)). The difference between our length-scaling exponent and the simplified models suggests that animals are often swimming non-optimally in order to feed or perform other routine behaviors. Cruising speed aligned more closely with an estimate of the optimal speed required to minimize the energetic cost of swimming (proportional to length(-1)). Our results are among the first to elucidate the relationships between both oscillatory frequency and cruising speed and body size for free-swimming animals at the largest scale.
format Text
author Gough, William T.
Segre, Paolo S.
Bierlich, K. C.
Cade, David E.
Potvin, Jean
Fish, Frank E.
Dale, Julian
di Clemente, Jacopo
Friedlaender, Ari S.
Johnston, David W.
Kahane-Rapport, Shirel R.
Kennedy, John
Long, John H.
Oudejans, Machiel
Penry, Gwenith
Savoca, Matthew S.
Simon, Malene
Videsen, Simone K. A.
Visser, Fleur
Wiley, David N.
Goldbogen, Jeremy O.
author_facet Gough, William T.
Segre, Paolo S.
Bierlich, K. C.
Cade, David E.
Potvin, Jean
Fish, Frank E.
Dale, Julian
di Clemente, Jacopo
Friedlaender, Ari S.
Johnston, David W.
Kahane-Rapport, Shirel R.
Kennedy, John
Long, John H.
Oudejans, Machiel
Penry, Gwenith
Savoca, Matthew S.
Simon, Malene
Videsen, Simone K. A.
Visser, Fleur
Wiley, David N.
Goldbogen, Jeremy O.
author_sort Gough, William T.
title Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
title_short Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
title_full Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
title_fullStr Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
title_full_unstemmed Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
title_sort scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales
publisher Digital Commons @ West Chester University
publishDate 2019
url https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/bio_facpub/61
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204172
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/context/bio_facpub/article/1062/viewcontent/jeb204172.full.pdf
long_lat ENVELOPE(-62.311,-62.311,-65.648,-65.648)
geographic Rorqual
geographic_facet Rorqual
genre baleen whales
genre_facet baleen whales
op_source Biology Faculty Publications
op_relation https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/bio_facpub/61
doi:10.1242/jeb.204172
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/context/bio_facpub/article/1062/viewcontent/jeb204172.full.pdf
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204172
container_title Journal of Experimental Biology
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