Flow-mediated bacterial swimming near curved surfaces

Swimming allows the bacteria to explore their environment in search for nutrients and new habitats. Near surfaces, hydrodynamic and steric interactions as well as flow shear modulate the bacterial swimming dynamics. These changes have important implications for their success in colonizing the surfaces. Here, we use microfluidic experiments to probe the influence of motility and surface curvature on the bacterial behavior. We discuss the implications of our findings for biological settings involving flows such as bacterial colonization of sedimenting marine snow in the oceans and nutrient hotspots in soils.