Paper detail

Mixing by microorganisms in stratified fluids

We examine the vertical mixing induced by the swimming of microorganisms at low Reynolds and Péclet numbers in a stably stratified ocean, and show that the global contribution of oceanic microswimmers to vertical mixing is negligible. We propose two approaches to estimating the mixing efficiency, $η$, or the ratio of the rate of potential energy creation to the total rate-of-working on the ocean by microswimmers. The first is based on scaling arguments and estimates $η$ in terms of the ratio between the typical organism size, $a$, and an intrinsic length scale for the stratified flow, $\ell = \left ( νκ/ N^2 \right )^{1/4}$, where $ν$ is the kinematic viscosity, $κ$ the diffusivity, and $N$ the buoyancy frequency. In particular, for small organisms in the relevant oceanic limit, $a / \ell \ll 1$, we predict the scaling $η\sim (a / \ell)^3$. The second estimate of $η$ is formed by solving the full coupled flow-stratification problem by modeling the swimmer as a regularized force dipole, and computing the efficiency numerically. Our computational results, which are examined for all ratios $a/\ell$, validate the scaling arguments in the limit $a / \ell \ll 1$ and further predict $η\approx 1.2 \left ( a / \ell \right )^3$ for vertical swimming and $η\approx 0.15 \left ( a / \ell \right )^3$ for horizontal swimming. These results, relevant for any stratified fluid rich in biological activity, imply that the mixing efficiency of swimming microorganisms in the ocean is at very most 8\% and is likely smaller by at least two orders of magnitude.