Meeting Abstract

84.1  Monday, Jan. 6 10:30  Modeling the collective dynamics of metabolic allometry WATERS, J. S.; Princeton University jswaters@princeton.edu

Social insect colonies are model systems to investigate the mechanistic basis for the complex emergence of patterns across levels of biological organization as well as spatial and temporal scales. In the absence of hierarchical control, social insect colonies exhibit many features suggestive of a collective intelligence including the organization of their foraging behavior, nest construction, ventilation, bridge building, house hunting, and ritualized warfare. Recently it has been demonstrated that the metabolic rates of whole social insect colonies exhibit a nonlinear allometry with colony size so that mass-specific demands decrease with increasing colony size. This hypometric pattern is also observed for individual organisms, though no single theory has been able to reliably explain a mechanism whereby individual cells integrate information about body size and demands for activity and regulate their metabolism accordingly. In social insect colonies, communication between workers takes place through dynamic chemical and physical interaction networks. These interactions provide the link between an individual and her colony and may provide the foundation for assessing colony size and influencing response thresholds in decision-making processes. To investigate this hypothesis, we are developing individual based models for switching between inactive and active states, which may be evaluated with respect to the structure of interaction networks observed between workers in seed harvesting ant colonies. In this way, we can examine the relative roles of spatial distribution, activity cycles, and connectivity in generating complex patterns in animal groups.