Spatial patterns in ant colonies

The origins of large-scale spatial patterns in biology have been an important source of theoretical speculation since the pioneering work by Turing (1952) on the chemical basis of morphogenesis. Knowing how these patterns emerge and their functional role is important to our understanding of the evolution of biocomplexity and the role played by self organization. However, so far, conclusive evidence for local activation-long-range inhibition mechanisms in real biological systems has been elusive. Here a well-defined experimental and theoretical analysis of the pattern formation dynamics exhibited by clustering behavior in ant colonies is presented. These experiments and a simple mathematical model show that these colonies do indeed use this type of mechanism. All microscopic variables have been measured and provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, for this type of self-organized behavior in complex biological systems, supporting early conjectures about its role in the organization of insect societies.

Ingår i:Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences99:15, s. 9645-9649
Ingår i:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences99:15, s. 9645-96490027-84241091-6490

Av författaren/redakt...: Theraulaz, Guy; Bonabeau, Eric; Nicolis, Stamati ...; Sole, Ricard V; Fourcassié, Vinc ...; Blanco, Stéphane; visa fler...; Fournier, Richar ...; Joly, Jean-Louis; Fernandez, Pau; Grimal, Anne; Dalle, Patrice; Deneubourg, Jean ...; visa färre...

Om ämnet

Kungliga biblioteket hanterar dina personuppgifter i enlighet med EU:s dataskyddsförordning (2018), GDPR. Läs mer om hur det funkar här.
Så här hanterar KB dina uppgifter vid användning av denna tjänst.