PBRC researchers Petra Lenz and Dan Hartline have been awarded at $500,000 NSF grant to study predator-prey interactions between larval clown fish and copepods. The team will collaborate with Dr. Rudi Strickler of the Unversity of Wisconsin and Dr. Ed Buskey of the University of Texas Marine Sciences Institute in Port Aransas.
Together the team will record, with unprecedented temporal and 3D spatial resolution, the capture attempts of the fish on the highly-evasive copepods using state-of-the-art high-speed inline digital holography, supported by the computing power of PBRC's Computer Network Support Facility BEOWULF cluster. The study will examine diversity in escape strategies among Hawaiian copepod species, comparing it to diversity in nervous system structure-function, and ultimately expanding into comparisons with mainland copepods and fish that use alternative predatory strategies.