Investigating microscale patchiness of motile microbes under turbulence in a simulated convective mixed layer
Fig 1
Depth structure of the simulated flow. The white-blue gradient represents the density gradient of the fluid (Δρ/ρ0 = (ρ − ρ0)/ρ0), where ρ0 is the reference density ρ0 at z = 0).
(a) Turbulent kinetic energy (k) vs depth in the fluid DNS. The red line denotes the mean value of k at all simulated depths. (b) Turbulent dissipation rate (ϵ) vs depth in the fluid DNS. The red line denotes the mean value of ϵ at each simulated depth, while the golden ribbon shows the variance of ϵ at each depth. Variances are not known for panel (a) since k is itself computed from the variances of the fluid velocities. The Shallow, Mid, and Deep depth regions are labelled in red text and delimited by black dashed lines. Turbulence was strongest near the fluid surface and declined with depth, with essentially quiescent waters below the density interface.