Collaborative Proposal: RUI: Dynamic ant networks: How environmental constraints and ecological context shape resource transport systems

许多蚂蚁将它们的蚁群成员和资源分布在多个巢穴中；巢间的移动由一个持久的踪迹网络维持。这些蚂蚁运输系统在有益物种和害虫物种中很常见，在许多方面与人类的运输系统相似。与地铁系统和公路网一样，他们的目标是快速高效地将资源和人员从一个地方转移到另一个地方。在交通系统中拥有替代路线可以使旅行更快、更可靠，特别是在特定路线中断或积压之后。然而，额外的航线需要额外的资源。以最小的成本设计一个高效、可靠的交通系统，即使对于可以从系统范围来看的人类工程师来说也是一个困难的问题。相比之下，蚁群在建设交通网络时没有中心愿景或总体规划。尽管如此，某些物种仍然能够创造出非常可靠、高效和低成本的系统。这项研究将开发一个新的框架来解释蚁群是如何通过逐步修改而不是设计的过程来创建这样功能良好的运输系统的。本科生、研究生和两名博士后研究人员将作为跨学科国际团队的一部分接受指导。来自STEM中代表性不足群体的高中生将在PIS的指导下由本科生指导。这项研究有助于启发入侵蚂蚁害虫的新管理策略，以及人类交通系统的新设计算法。结果将通过一系列短片、佛罗里达州立公园的展览和演示以及一个由本科生撰写的博客与公众分享。尽管生物和人类工程交通网络无处不在，但没有统一的框架来预测它们如何以平衡基础设施成本、交通效率和健壮性的方式动态和自适应地应对外部压力。该项目的中心目标是开发一个关于环境约束和机会如何塑造动态交通网络的一般理论，强调网络结构和功能之间的相互作用。基于产生式智能体的网络方法将被用来建立动态交通网络的一般模型。该模型将探索网络如何通过在一系列生态约束下运行的动态网络重组过程来有效应对环境挑战。该模型将被参数化，并最初使用陆地木材-蚂蚁网络的现有数据进行测试，然后根据结果进行改进。然后，该模型将针对树栖龟蚂蚁占据的参数空间的显著不同区域生成预测，并使用关于龟蚂蚁网络结构和使用的新的现场数据进行测试。最后，该模型将通过使用龟蚂蚁的野外和实验室实验来挑战，其中将跟踪它们的交通网络在资源分布、干扰模式和空间约束发生变化后的动态响应。该项目的目标是理论的发展，有可能统一生物系统中动态交通网络的研究，并可能应用于各种自然和人类问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many ants distribute their colony members and resources across multiple nests; movement between nests is maintained by a network of persistent trails. These ant transportation systems, common among beneficial and pest species, are similar to human transportation systems in many ways. Like subway systems and road networks, their goal is to move resources and individuals quickly and efficiently from place to place. Having alternative routes within a transportation system can make travel faster and more reliable, especially following disruptions or backlogs on particular routes. Yet extra routes cost additional resources. Designing an efficient and reliable transportation system at minimal cost is a difficult problem even for human engineers, who can take a system-wide perspective. Ant colonies, in contrast, build their transportation networks with no central vision or overarching plan. Certain species are nonetheless able to create systems that are remarkably reliable, efficient, and low-cost. This research will develop a new framework to explain how ant colonies create such well-functioning transportation systems via a process of gradual modification rather than design. Undergraduates, graduate students and two postdoctoral researchers will be mentored as part of an interdisciplinary, international team. High school students from groups underrepresented in STEM will be mentored by undergraduates with guidance from the PIs. This research could help inspire new management strategies for invasive ant pests, and new design algorithms for human transportation systems. Results will be shared with the public via a series of short films, exhibits and presentations at Florida state parks, and an established undergraduate-authored blog.Despite the ubiquity of biological and human-engineered transportation networks, there is no unifying framework for predicting how they respond dynamically and adaptively to external pressures in a way that balances infrastructure cost, transportation efficiency, and robustness. The central objective of the project is to develop a general theory for how environmental constraints and opportunities shape dynamic transportation networks, emphasizing the interactions between network structure and function. A generative agent-based network approach will be used to create a general model of dynamic transportation networks. The model will explore how networks respond effectively to environmental challenges via processes of dynamic network restructuring that operate under a range of ecological constraints. The model will be parameterized and tested initially with existing data for terrestrial wood-ant networks, and refined based on the results. Predictions will then be generated by the model for the substantially different region of the parameter space occupied by arboreal turtle ants, and tested with new field data on turtle ant network structure and usage. Finally, the model will be challenged with field and laboratory experiments using turtle ants, where the dynamic response of their transportation network will be tracked following changes to resource distributions, disturbance patterns, and spatial constraints. The project targets the development of theory with the potential to unify research on dynamic transportation networks across biological systems, with possible applications to a variety of natural and human problems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.