The muscle activity of trout exposed to unsteady flow
In running water trout seek out special regions for station holding. Trout exposed to flow fluctuations caused by a cylinder hold station immediately upstream of the cylinder (bow wake region), adjacent to the cylinder (entraining region) or downstream of the cylinder (Kármán gait). In addition it was shown that the activity of the axial red swimming muscles is reduced during Kármán gaiting. Up to now only the two-dimensional (horizontal) extensions of the above regions have been examined. We determined both, the horizontal and vertical extension of the Kármán gait, entraining and bow wake region by continuously recording the position (spatial resolution 1 cm3) of trout for 3 h. In addition we continuously recorded the trunk muscle activity. The Kármán gate region had the smallest vertical extension (13 cm, water level 28–29 cm, length of the submerged cylinder 27 cm), followed by the entraining (21 cm) and bow wake region (25 cm). A fourth so far unknown region used for station holding was immediately below a stationary surface wave which, at flow velocities ≥36 cm s− 1, developed slightly downstream of the cylinder. While in any of the above regions the activity of the axial swimming muscles was significantly reduced.