Social Network Analysis and Nutritional Behavior: An Integrated Modeling Approach.

ABSTRACT: Animals have evolved complex foraging strategies to obtain a nutritionally balanced diet and associated fitness benefits. Recent research combining state-space models of nutritional geometry with agent-based models (ABMs), show how nutrient targeted foraging behavior can also influence animal social interactions, ultimately affecting collective dynamics and group structures. Here we demonstrate how social network analyses can be integrated into such a modeling framework and provide a practical analytical tool to compare experimental results with theory. We illustrate our approach by examining the case of nutritionally mediated dominance hierarchies. First we show how nutritionally explicit ABMs that simulate the emergence of dominance hierarchies can be used to generate social networks. Im

SUBMITTER: Senior AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4731493 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature