RUI: Asymmetric Risks and Rewards: Optimization of Group Positions to Balance Ecological and Physiological Constraints

职务名称： RUI：Asymmetric Risks and Rewards：Optimization of Group Positions to Balance Ecological and Physiological Constraints. P.I.： W.L.博士一群鱼或一群鸟在一起移动的美丽掩盖了其中潜在的紧张关系：食物机会的差异，被攻击的风险的差异，以及其成员之间的生理差异。 鱼、鸟和其他群居物种并不像以前假设的那样随机分布在它们的群体中。 Dr. Bisey和学生将开发和测试一个通用的概念模型，以预测个人应该根据个人的生理和环境在一个群体中的位置。 例如，如果在一个群体的前沿有更多的食物，但也有更大的捕食风险，那么喂养良好的个体“应该”把自己放在后面，权衡捕食的机会高于食物获取。 将进行一系列的实验室实验，其中以下因素将系统地变化：饱足，化学防御，食物分布，捕食者分布和水流速度。 他们将使用旋转甲虫（Dineutes）作为这种松散分组物种（聚集体）的模式生物，因为它们可以很容易地进入实验室，标记和二维分组。 在这些不同的条件下，被标记的个人的位置将通过计算机视频分析进行分析。 这项研究将有助于开发一个通用的概念模型，并最终模拟模型，这可以帮助预测群体，羊群和学校的群体动态。 拟议研究的更广泛意义包括理解：1）动物如何做出决策，2）优化理论，3）博弈论和随机动态建模，以及4）理解个体行为如何导致涌现的群体属性和分布。

Title: RUI: Asymmetric Risks and Rewards: Optimization of Group Positions to Balance Ecological and Physiological Constraints.P.I.: Dr. W.L. Romey, The beauty of a shifting school of fish or flock of birds moving in unison belies the underlying tension within it: differences of opportunities for food, differences of risks of being attacked, and differences in physiology among its members. Fish, birds, and other gregarious species are not as randomly distributed within their groups as previously assumed. Dr. Romey and students will develop and test a general conceptual model to predict where individuals should be in a group based on an individual's physiology and their environment. For example, if there is more food available at the front edge of a group, but also greater risk of predation, then well fed individuals "should" position themselves in the back, weighing the chance of predation higher than food acquisition. A series of laboratory experiments will be carried out in which the following factors will be systematically varied: satiation, chemical defenses, food distribution, predator distribution, and water velocity. They will use whirligig beetles (Dineutes) as a model organism for this type of loosely grouping species (congregation) because they can be easily brought into the laboratory, marked, and group in two-dimensions. Position of marked individuals under these different conditions will be analyzed by computer-video analysis. This study will help to develop a general conceptual model, and eventually a simulation model, which can help to make predictions about group dynamics of swarms, flocks, and schools. Broader implications of the proposed research include understanding: 1) how animals make decisions, 2) optimization theory, 3) game theory and stochastic dynamic modeling, and 4) understanding how individual behaviors lead to emergent group properties and distributions.