Waders Imitate Each Other
Current distribution models for social animals are inadequate because they do not take into account that species do not just compete with each other but may also attract one another. This is one of the results Eelke Folmer presents in his PhD thesis. Folmer studied 'self-organization' by various species including foraging waders on the Wadden mudflats. Folmer will defend his PhD thesis 'Self-Organization on Mudflats' at the University of Groningen on 20 April 2012.
An ecologist, watching foraging birds on the mudflats through binoculars, cannot help wondering why, for example, a large group of knots is at one specific spot rather than another; and why the curlews are so far apart? Soil samples, observations, and surveys all provide a wealth of data. But finding ecological patterns and regularities in all these data is quite a task. Computer simulations, spatial statistical models and structural equation models may help in sorting out the information and revealing processes of self-organization.
Lees meer: NIOZ
Current distribution models for social animals are inadequate because they do not take into account that species do not just compete with each other but may also attract one another. This is one of the results Eelke Folmer presents in his PhD thesis. Folmer studied 'self-organization' by various species including foraging waders on the Wadden mudflats. Folmer will defend his PhD thesis 'Self-Organization on Mudflats' at the University of Groningen on 20 April 2012.
An ecologist, watching foraging birds on the mudflats through binoculars, cannot help wondering why, for example, a large group of knots is at one specific spot rather than another; and why the curlews are so far apart? Soil samples, observations, and surveys all provide a wealth of data. But finding ecological patterns and regularities in all these data is quite a task. Computer simulations, spatial statistical models and structural equation models may help in sorting out the information and revealing processes of self-organization.
Lees meer: NIOZ
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