Modelling locust foraging: How and why food affects group formation
| Autor: | Fillipe Georgiou, J. E. F. Green, Jerome Buhl, Bishnu P. Lamichhane, Ngamta Thamwattana |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Life Cycles
Physiology Social Sciences 01 natural sciences Population density 010305 fluids & plasmas Mathematical and Statistical Techniques Psychology Foraging Biology (General) 0303 health sciences education.field_of_study Appetitive Behavior Ecology biology Animal Behavior Mathematical Models Eukaryota Agriculture Insects Food resources Computational Theory and Mathematics Modeling and Simulation Insect Pests Research Article Nymph 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak Arthropoda Social Psychology QH301-705.5 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Population Zoology Grasshoppers Research and Analysis Methods Models Biological 03 medical and health sciences Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Pests Population Metrics 0103 physical sciences Genetics Animals Local population education Molecular Biology Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 030304 developmental biology Population Density Behavior Population Biology Organisms Food Consumption Biology and Life Sciences Computational Biology Correction Collective Animal Behavior Feeding Behavior Locusts biology.organism_classification Invertebrates Nymphs Crowding Physiological Processes Entomology Locust Developmental Biology |
| Zdroj: | PLoS Computational Biology PLoS Computational Biology, Vol 17, Iss 7, p e1008353 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 1553-7358 |
| Popis: | Locusts are short horned grasshoppers that exhibit two behaviour types depending on their local population density. These are: solitarious, where they will actively avoid other locusts, and gregarious where they will seek them out. It is in this gregarious state that locusts can form massive and destructive flying swarms or plagues. However, these swarms are usually preceded by the aggregation of juvenile wingless locust nymphs. In this paper we attempt to understand how the distribution of food resources affect the group formation process. We do this by introducing a multi-population partial differential equation model that includes non-local locust interactions, local locust and food interactions, and gregarisation. Our results suggest that, food acts to increase the maximum density of locust groups, lowers the percentage of the population that needs to be gregarious for group formation, and decreases both the required density of locusts and time for group formation around an optimal food width. Finally, by looking at foraging efficiency within the numerical experiments we find that there exists a foraging advantage to being gregarious. Author summary Locusts are short horned grass hoppers that live in two diametrically opposed behavioural states. In the first, solitarious, they will actively avoid other locusts, whereas the second, gregarious, they will actively seek them out. It is in this gregarious state that locusts form the recognisable and destructive flying adult swarms. However, prior to swarm formation juvenile flightless locusts will form marching hopper bands and make their way from food source to food source. Predicting where these hopper bands might form is key to controlling locust outbreaks. Research has shown that changes in food distributions can affect the transition from solitarious to gregarious. In this paper we construct a mathematical model of locust-locust and locust-food interactions to investigate how food distributions affect the aggregation of juvenile locusts, termed groups, an important precursor to hopper bands. Our findings suggest that there is an optimal food distribution for group formation and that being gregarious increases a locusts ability to forage when food becomes more patchy. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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