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Temperature gradients drive radial fluid flow in Petri dishes and multiwell plates.

ABSTRACT: Liquid in a Petri dish spontaneously circulates in a radial pattern, even when the dish is at rest. These fluid flows have been observed and utilized for biological research, but their origins have not been well-studied. Here we used particle-tracking to measure velocities of radial fluid flows, which are shown to be linked to evaporation. Infrared thermal imaging was used to identify thermal gradients at the air-liquid interface and at the bottom of the dish. Two-color ratiometric fluorescence confocal imaging was used to measure thermal gradients in the vertical direction within the fluid. A finite-element model of the fluid, incorporating the measured temperature profiles, shows that buoyancy forces are sufficient to produce flows consistent with the measured particle velocity results. Such flows may arise in other dish or plate formats, and may impact biological research in positive or negative ways.

SUBMITTER: Lindsay SM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4856293 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Temperature gradients drive radial fluid flow in Petri dishes and multiwell plates.

Lindsay Stephen M SM Yin John J

AIChE journal. American Institute of Chemical Engineers 20160217 6

Liquid in a Petri dish spontaneously circulates in a radial pattern, even when the dish is at rest. These fluid flows have been observed and utilized for biological research, but their origins have not been well-studied. Here we used particle-tracking to measure velocities of radial fluid flows, which are shown to be linked to evaporation. Infrared thermal imaging was used to identify thermal gradients at the air-liquid interface and at the bottom of the dish. Two-color ratiometric fluorescence ...[more]

PMID: 27158150

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Project description:AimAnticipating and mitigating the impacts of climate change on species diversity in montane ecosystems requires a mechanistic understanding of drivers of current patterns of diversity. We documented the shape of elevational gradients in avian species richness in North America and tested a suite of a priori predictions for each of five mechanistic hypotheses to explain those patterns.LocationUnited States.MethodsWe used predicted occupancy maps generated from species distribution models for each of 646 breeding birds to document elevational patterns in avian species richness across the six largest U.S. mountain ranges. We used spatially explicit biotic and abiotic data to test five mechanistic hypotheses proposed to explain geographic variation in species richness.ResultsElevational gradients in avian species richness followed a consistent pattern of low elevation plateau-mid-elevation peak (as per McCain, 2009). We found support for three of the five hypotheses to explain the underlying cause of this pattern: the habitat heterogeneity, temperature, and primary productivity hypotheses.Main conclusionsSpecies richness typically decreases with elevation, but the primary cause and precise shape of the relationship remain topics of debate. We used a novel approach to study the richness-elevation relationship and our results are unique in that they show a consistent relationship between species richness and elevation among 6 mountain ranges, and universal support for three hypotheses proposed to explain the underlying cause of the observed relationship. Taken together, these results suggest that elevational variation in food availability may be the ecological process that best explains elevational gradients in avian species richness in North America. Although much attention has focused on the role of abiotic factors, particularly temperature, in limiting species' ranges, our results offer compelling evidence that other processes also influence (and may better explain) elevational gradients in species richness.

Dataset Information

Temperature gradients drive radial fluid flow in Petri dishes and multiwell plates.

Publications

Temperature gradients drive radial fluid flow in Petri dishes and multiwell plates.

Similar Datasets

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