Including population and environmental dynamic heterogeneities in continuum models of collective behaviour with applications to locust foraging and group structure.

ABSTRACT: Collective behaviour occurs at all levels of the natural world, from cells aggregating to form tissues, to locusts interacting to form large and destructive plagues. These complex behaviours arise from relatively simple interactions amongst individuals and between individuals and their environment. For simplicity, mathematical models of these phenomena often assume that the population is homogeneous. However, population heterogeneity arising due to the internal state of individuals can affect these interactions and thus plays a role in the dynamics of group formation. In this paper, we present a partial differential equation model that accounts for this heterogeneity by introducing a state space that models an individual's internal state (e.g. age, level of hunger) which affects its moveme

SUBMITTER: Georgiou F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11999712 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature