Wasserbewegung im mikrobereich des benthos

Abstract

Summary THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF WATER MOVEMENT IN THE BENTHOS The influence of water movement on organisms acts through the film of liquid adhering to the surface, the boundary-layer. The structure of water movement is analysed at all scales from oceanic to microscopic. Each dimension has its own problems and experimental methods. While in this respect oceanography has reached quite an advanced state, in the smallest dimensions we are only able to deal with ideal geometrical bodies; it has been possible nevertheless to show that the structure and size-groupings of micro-organisms show good correlations with the dynamics of the boundary-layer. At the present state of knowledge current-models and micro-probes can give information about the nature of water movements around very small objects, and these can be tested further by mathematical methods.