Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Plant biomechanics

High-endurance algae

Nature volume 503, pages 345–346 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Breaking waves place repeated loading on marine algae, which can lead to death by fatigue. But observations of one alga suggest that its joint structure, which lacks transverse connections, confers fatigue resistance.

Rocky shores are pounded by surf, with each wave delivering a fresh assault on the attached plants and animals about once every ten seconds — more than 8,000 times a day or almost 3 million times a year. Most organisms are simply not up to the task of surviving in this environment; only a select few are able to endure these high-intensity workouts and proliferate. Writing in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Denny et al.1 reveal a key design feature of one of the most successful surf-zone competitors: the strong, fatigue-resistant joints of coralline algae.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: No stress.

References

  1. Denny, M., Mach, K., Tepler, S. & Martone, P. J. Exp. Biol. 216, 3772–3780 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Mach, K. J., Tepler, S. K., Staaf, A. V., Bohnhoff, J. C. & Denny, M. W. J. Exp. Biol. 214, 1571–1585 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Griffith, A. A. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 221, 163–198 (1921).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Emily Carrington is at the Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, Friday Harbor, Washington 98250, USA.,

    Emily Carrington

Authors
  1. Emily Carrington
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emily Carrington.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Carrington, E. High-endurance algae. Nature 503, 345–346 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/503345a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/503345a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing