Aggregation in patchy environment: when low cost experiments meet simple modelling

Institute Seminar by Jean-Louis Deneubourg

  • Date: Nov 8, 2022
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Jean-Louis Deneubourg
  • Jean Louis Deneubourg is an internationally recognized expert on self-organization in collective phenomena, he is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems and Professor at the Department of Animal Biology at the Université de Bruxelles.
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: D432 + online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: all.science@ab.mpg.de
Aggregation in patchy environment: when low cost experiments meet simple modelling
Aggregation, one of the most basic social phenomena, is widespread among insects and arthropods (including species vector disease, agricultural pests,…).. For instance, the selection of a valuable site (e.g. the gathering of individuals in particular shelters) and the spatial organization of the population are very often by-products of amplifications based on the local density of nestmates. In short, inter-attractions between individuals governed by physical or chemical cues (or their combination), generates amplifications and positive feedbacks. Not surprisingly, the selection of a site and/or the spatial organization are modulated by heterogeneities in the environment. The patterns of aggregation are very diverse and many social activities are linked to them. One might question how these multiple patterns emerge. Experimental and simple models show how gregarious behavior and its modulation lead to a diversity of collective responses (e.g. consensus, segregation, synchronization, …) as well as their robustness.

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