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Pattern formation in photo-controlled bioconvection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2023

Aina Ramamonjy ,
Philippe Brunet Open the ORCID record for Philippe Brunet [Opens in a new window]  and
Julien Dervaux Open the ORCID record for Julien Dervaux [Opens in a new window]
Aina Ramamonjy
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, UMR 7057 CNRS & Université Paris Cité, 75013 Paris, France
Philippe Brunet
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, UMR 7057 CNRS & Université Paris Cité, 75013 Paris, France
Julien Dervaux*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, UMR 7057 CNRS & Université Paris Cité, 75013 Paris, France
*
†Email address for correspondence: julien.dervaux@univ-paris-diderot.fr
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Abstract

The model eukaryotic microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is well known for its ability to generate bioconvection flows that are associated to intricate concentration patterns. Recently, it was demonstrated that the propensity of these algae to move toward a light source – a phenomenon termed phototaxis – can be exploited to locally concentrate micro-organisms and induce (photo)-bioconvection in algal suspensions by inducing a localised excess of density. In the present study we show experimentally that a cell population in a thin liquid layer self-organises in the presence of a heterogeneous light field and displays remarkable symmetry-breaking instabilities that are ruled by both the width of the light beam and the photo-bioconvection Rayleigh number. Beside circular stable states, fingers, dendrites and wave instabilities are reported, quantified and classified in a general phase diagram. Next, we use lubrication theory to develop an asymptotic model for bioconvection in a thin liquid layer, that includes the influences of both gyrotaxis and phototaxis. We obtain a single nonlinear anisotropic diffusion–drift equation describing the spatiotemporal evolution of the depth-averaged algal population. Analytical and numerical solutions are presented and show a very good agreement with the experimental results. In particular, we show that the dendrite instability arises as a result of a subtle coupling between the nonlinearity of the phototactic response, the gyrotactic effect and the self-induced bioconvective flows. Such complex flow fields might find applications in photo-bioreactors, through the efficient stirring of the harvested biomass.

JFM classification

Biological Fluid Dynamics: Bioconvection Biological Fluid Dynamics: Collective behaviour Interfacial Flows (free surface): Thin films
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 971 , 25 September 2023 , A29
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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