Swarming strategies for cooperative species.
In this paper, we propose a model to investigate the relative efficiency of simple swarming strategies based on the interplay between spontaneous and recruitment-based emigration. We conduct a dynamical study of the model which combines inverse density dependence, saturation effects and induced vs. diffusion-like population transfer. The influence of the most relevant parameters is explored on a systematic basis, and transition values for which qualitative changes occur in the system's behaviour are given. The model is then used to study colonization of a multiple sites environment, as well as confrontation between species featuring different swarming strategies. Simulation results indicate that cooperative organisms should have an interest in evolving recruitment-based emigration. The corresponding population transfer patterns prove more efficient in invading new territories, eliminating competitors in the process. We suggest that this advantage could have promoted a simple form of coordinated swarming in species featuring a primitive type of cooperation.
Saffre
F
F
BTexact Technologies, Adastral park, pp Antares 2/5, Martlesham, IP5 3RE Ipswich, UK. saffref@info.bt.co.uk
Deneubourg
J L
JL
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics