The physiological mechanisms underlying animal group dynamics

该项目旨在提供新的见解，了解肌肉生物力学和代谢的个体差异如何限制群体组合，以及这些限制在多大程度上可以在不断变化的环境中导致群体的裂变和融合。这项研究意义重大，因为大多数生态和进化过程及其管理发生在群体层面。该项目期望产生一个根据经验数据校准的理论模型，以预测自然种群在不断变化的环境中的群体动态，以及随着疾病和生活方式改变生理能力的人群动态。

The project aims to provide novel insights into how individual differences in muscle biomechanics and metabolism constrain group assemblages, and the extent to which these constraints can cause fission and fusion of populations in changing environments. This research is significant because most ecological and evolutionary processes and their management occur at the level of groups. The project expects to yield a theoretical model calibrated against empirical data to predict group dynamics of natural populations in changing environments, and of human crowds as diseases and lifestyle change physiological capacities.