How Detailed, Venus’s- Flower-Baskets Manipulate the Flow of Seawater

Simulations reveal that this deep-sea glass sponge’s skeleton is more than simply pretty

A Venus’s flower basket is not all just beautiful. This spectacular deep-sea sponge can also change the circulation of seawater in unusual ways.

The sponge’s glassy skeleton is formed by a lacy, barrel-shaped chamber. Flow simulations show how this complex structure changes the way water moves around and inside the sponge, assisting it in enduring unrelenting sea currents and perhaps feeding and reproducing, scientists reported online on July 21 in Nature.

Previous studies found that Venus’s flower basket’s gridlike construction (Euplectella aspergillum) is solid and adaptable. “However, nobody has ever attempted to see if these stunning structures have fluid-dynamic properties,” states mechanical engineer Giacomo Falcucci of the Tor Vergata University of Rome.

Taking advantage of supercomputers, Falcucci and colleagues simulated exactly how water streams around and inside the sponge’s body, with and without different skeletal components such as the sponge’s myriad pores. If the sponge were a solid cylinder, water moving past would undoubtedly create a turbulent wake immediately downstream that might jolt the creature, Falcucci says. Instead, water moves through and around the highly porous Venus’s flower basket and creates a gentle area of water that flanks the sponge and displaces disturbance downstream, the team discovered. By doing this, the sponge’s body sustains less stress.

The simulations showed ridges that spiral around the outside of the sponge’s skeleton somehow lead water to slow down and swirl inside the structure. Consequently, food and reproductive cells that drift right into the sponge would undoubtedly end up being trapped for approximately twice as long as in the very same sponge without ridges. That lingering around could assist the filter feeders in capturing more plankton. Moreover, since Venus’s flower-baskets can reproduce sexually, the scientists say it can also improve the chances that free-floating sperm encounter eggs.

It is outstanding that such beauty could be so functional, Falcucci states. He states that the sponge’s flow-altering abilities might help inspire taller, more wind-resistant skyscrapers.

Originally published on Science News. Read the original article.

Reference: G. Falcucci et al. Extreme flow simulations reveal skeletal adaptations of deep-sea sponges. Nature. Published online July 21, 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03658-1.