Stalk structure improves feeding position: sea anemone

1 of 2 Clonal plumose anemone colony / Asbjørn Han.. / License

The stalk of a tall sea anemone maximizes the anemone's feeding postion by bending at its narrowest part, just below its crown of tentacles.

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[Collapse all sections] Summary

"In some cases, nature capitalizes on the way hollow tubes bend. A tall sea anemone, Metridium, has an area of its columnar body just beneath the crown of tentacles that is narrower than anywhere else, as in figure 18.9. The material properties of the stalk don't vary, but when a gentle water current is present, the stalk bends at this point rather than at the bottom, and the tentacles are exposed broadside to the flow in the best position for feeding on suspended matter (Koehl 1977b). It doesn't take much narrowing to concentrate the bending--I [the second moment of area], as equation (18.1) shows, depends strongly on radius." (Vogel 2003:376)

About the inspiring organism

clonal plumose anemone
Metridium senile (Linnaeus, 1761)
[Clonal plumose anemone]

IUCN Red List Status: Unknown

Some organism data provided by: Hexacorals: Hexacorallians of the World
Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: Communications towers, wind turbines, tents, stadium-like structures, etc. that are stable yet require fewer materials to manufacture.

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Communications, engineering, wind energy

Experts

Koehl Lab: Ecological and Evolutionary Biomechanics
Mimi A.R. Koehl
Department of Zoology, University of California--Berkeley

References

Steven Vogel. 2003. Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 580 p.

Koehl, MAR. 1977. Mechanical organization of cantilever-like sessile organisms: sea anemones. Journal of Experimental Biology. 69: 127-142.

Stalk structure improves feeding position: sea anemone

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