Biol Open 2026 Aug 04; doi: 10.1242/bio.062621.

The effect of strain rate on adhesion in the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus).

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Sea urchins attach to intertidal substrates in the face of dynamic hydrodynamic forces using flexible, adhesive tube feet. Tube foot-based adhesion varies between species and among populations with different habitats (i.e., temperature, hydrodynamic forces). While some sea urchin species have tube foot stem tissues (tested in anaesthetized individuals) that better resist breaking under higher loading rates, it remains unclear whether this improves whole animal adhesive performance in unanesthetized animals. To test whether loading rate and previous hydrodynamic exposure influence the adhesive performance of the intertidal purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, we measured the strain rate dependence of the tube foot disc, tube foot stem, and whole animal adhesion, using three sets of sea urchins with different environmental histories. In unanesthetized S. purpuratus strain rate influenced tube foot disc tenacity, but not the tube foot stem nor whole animal adhesion. Rather, sea urchins collected more recently had higher whole animal adhesion, and reliance on the tube foot disc and the tube foot stem varied amongst animal sets. These results further support the hypothesis that hydrodynamic loading maintains adhesive performance in sea urchins and highlight the importance of investigating strain rate at levels of organization that impact organismal performance in situ.

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