Data from: Turbulence induces metabolically costly behaviors and inhibits food capture in oyster larvae, causing net energy loss

Planktotrophic invertebrate larvae require energy to develop, disperse,
and settle successfully, and it is unknown how their energetics is
impacted by turbulence. Ciliated larvae gain metabolic energy from their
phytoplankton food to offset the energetic costs of growth, development,
and ciliary activity for swimming and feeding. Turbulence may affect the
energetic balance by inducing behaviors that alter the metabolic costs and
efficiency of swimming, by raising the encounter rate with food particles,
and by inhibiting food capture. We used experiments and an empirical model
to quantify the net rate of energy gain, swimming efficiency, and food
capture efficiency for eyed oyster larvae (Crassostrea virginica) in
turbulence. At dissipation rates representative of coastal waters, larvae
lost energy even when food concentrations were very high. Both feeding
activity and turbulence-induced behaviors incurred high metabolic costs.
Swimming efficiency was concave up versus dissipation rate, suggesting
that ciliary activity for food handling became more costly while swimming
became more efficient with turbulence intensity. Though counter-intuitive,
swimming may have become more efficient in turbulence because
vorticity-induced rotation caused larvae to swim more horizontally, which
requires less effort than swimming vertically against the pull of gravity.
Overall, however, larvae failed to offset high activity costs with food
energy gains because turbulence reduced food capture efficiency more than
it enhanced food encounter rates. Younger, smaller larvae may have some
energetic advantages, but competent larvae would lose energy at turbulence
intensities they experience frequently, suggesting that turbulence-induced
starvation may account for much of oysters' high larval mortality.