Entrainment dominates the interaction of microalgae with micron-sized objects

TL;DR

This study investigates how swimming microalgae, specifically Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, influence surrounding microparticles through entrainment, leading to enhanced and heterogeneous diffusion patterns driven by rare close encounters.

Contribution

It demonstrates that microorganism-colloid interactions are primarily governed by entrainment events, modeled as a jump-diffusion process, providing a new understanding of microorganism-induced particle dynamics.

Findings

Entrainment causes large displacements in microparticles.

Particle dynamics fit a jump-diffusion model combining diffusion and jumps.

Interactions depend on the near-field features of swimming microorganisms.

Abstract

The incessant activity of swimming microorganisms has a direct physical effect on surrounding microscopic objects, leading to enhanced diffusion far beyond the level of Brownian motion with possible influences on the spatial distribution of non-motile planktonic species and particulate drifters. Here we study in detail the effect of eukaryotic flagellates, represented by the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, on microparticles. Macro- and micro-scopic experiments reveal that microorganism-colloid interactions are dominated by rare close encounters leading to large displacements through direct entrainment. Simulations and theoretical modelling show that the ensuing particle dynamics can be understood in terms of a simple jump-diffusion process, combining standard diffusion with Poisson-distributed jumps. This heterogeneous dynamics is likely to depend on generic features of the near-field of swimming microorganisms with front-mounted flagella.