The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges and Corals
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This book gives a state-of-the-art overview of modeling growth and form of marine sessile organisms - such as stromatolites, algae, and metazoans including stony corals, hydrocorals, octocorals, and sponges -, using large-scale computing techniques, scientific visualization, methods for analyzing 2D and 3D forms, and particle-based modeling techniques. It originates from the workshop on Modeling Growth and Form of Marine Sessile Organisms, held at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, California, August 1999. Experts from various disciplines including developmental biology, ecology, computer science, physics and mathematics, who have research interests in modeling the development of these organisms have been invited to contribute. The book describes all the steps required to develop and experimentally validate morphological models including collecting biological information and methods for specifying and comparing forms. Examples are given of how models are currently being applied to simulate growth and form of marine sessile organisms. Potential applications of growth models and morphological analyses in modern and paleo-bio-monitoring, the detection of environmental change, and the conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems and aquaculture are addressed. The combination of simulation models with laboratory and field experiments provides a powerful tool to obtain insights on how the growth forms of marine organisms emerge from physical, genetic and environmental influences.
Ch. 1Introduction1Ch. 2Environmentally Driven Plasticity152.1The Physical Environment152.2The Case Studies30Ch. 3Measuring Growth and Form673.1Metrics for Branching Networks673.2Morphological Analysis of a Branching Sponge723.3Two-dimensional Morphological Analysis of Ranges of Growth Forms753.4Three-Dimensional Morphological Analysis of Growth Forms of Madracis Mirabilis (Preliminary Results)87Ch. 4Simulating Growth and Form914.1L-systems914.2Example of a Simple Model of Plasticity in Algal Morphology974.3Modeling Fluid Flow Using Lattice Gases and the Lattice Boltzmann Model994.4A Laplacian Model of Branching Growth1094.5Growth by Aggregation1144.6Accretive Growth1254.7Gastrovascular Dynamics of Hydractiniid Hydrozoans144Ch. 5Verifying Models1475.1Transplantation Experiments with Stony Corals1475.2Transplantation and Other Perturbation Experiments with the Sponge Haliclona oculata and a Comparison to the Simulation Models1515.3Colonial Hydrozoans: Perturbation Experiments of Gastrovascular Physiology and Effects on Colony Development155Ch. 6Applications1596.1Antarctic Sponges1606.2Coral Records163Ch. 7Epilogue1697.1Conclusion172References173Subject Index191
