Recent research, grounded in experiments (notably by Iain Couzin and collaborators), has connected neural ring models of vision to how animals navigate a complex landscape of attractive targets. In this talk we investigate the mathematical and biological implications of a three-stage model where animals pre-process visual stimuli to identify a discrete set of targets, process this input to...
The movement and behavior of small organism collectives can often play a key role in ecosystem function. One example is marine larval plankton which are critical for the health of filter feeders such as coral reefs and jellyfish. However, holistic modeling of scenarios like these can be a difficult multiscale problem involving individual locomotion dynamics within larger-scale flows. To...
Anthocyanins are glycosidic flavonoid pigments responsible for most of the red, purple, and blue colors in flowers, fruits, leaves, stems, bracts, seeds, and pollen. These multifunctional secondary metabolites reside primarily in epidermal vacuoles and act as antioxidants, providing photoprotection, contributing to wound healing, and offering freeze protection. In the crowded vacuolar...
In a striking example of collective behavior, swarms of locusts march in an apparently coordinated direction. Various swarm morphologies emerge in these groups that aid in feeding or migration, depending on the environment through which the swarm moves. However, unlike eusocial insects (such bees or ants) locusts have no social structure (or queen) to facilitate this directed motion. Instead,...
The dynamics and emergent behavior of collectives is a rich area of study in mathematical biology, and this session will focus on contributions to the field ranging from the molecular level all the way up to that of agricultural fields.
In chemical theories of nucleation, growth, and nanoparticle formation, “collective behavior” refers to phenomena where many interacting species (monomers,...
