scholarly journals Mobility, spatial heterogeneity, and the adaptiveness of monument building: A test of Dunnell’s waste hypothesis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Carleton ◽  
Andre Costopoulos ◽  
Mark Collard
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Restricted Mobility

Monuments are perplexing from a Darwinian perspective because building them diverts energy from survival and reproduction. In the late 1980s, Dunnell proposed a solution to this conundrum. He suggested that wasting energy confers an adaptive advantage in highly variable environments. This hypothesis has been used to explain several instances of monument building but it has only been evaluated once and that study suggested it is flawed. Here, we report a series of experiments in which we used an agent-based model to assess the hypothesis while taking into account two factors that could enhance the adaptiveness of waste—restricted agent movement and spatial structure in resource availability. Waste was strongly selected against in most of the experiments. Two experiments suggested that very restricted mobility can select for waste, but this effect disappeared when environmental variation increased from moderate to high. Thus, our experiments also suggest that the waste hypothesis is flawed.

scholarly journals Copy-when-uncertain: bumblebees rely on social information when rewards are highly variable

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 20160188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Smolla ◽  
Sylvain Alem ◽  
Lars Chittka ◽  
Susanne Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Foraging Decisions

To understand the relative benefits of social and personal information use in foraging decisions, we developed an agent-based model of social learning that predicts social information should be more adaptive where resources are highly variable and personal information where resources vary little. We tested our predictions with bumblebees and found that foragers relied more on social information when resources were variable than when they were not. We then investigated whether socially salient cues are used preferentially over non-social ones in variable environments. Although bees clearly used social cues in highly variable environments, under the same conditions they did not use non-social cues. These results suggest that bumblebees use a ‘copy-when-uncertain’ strategy.

A Spatial Agent-Based Model of Malaria

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Niaz Arifin ◽  
Gregory J. Davis ◽  
Ying Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Spatial Model ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Model Verification ◽  
System Capacity ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Mosquito Abundance ◽  
Adult Female Mosquito

In agent-based modeling (ABM), an explicit spatial representation may be required for certain aspects of the system to be modeled realistically. A spatial ABM includes landscapes in which agents seek resources necessary for their survival. The spatial heterogeneity of the underlying landscape plays a crucial role in the resource-seeking process. This study describes a previous agent-based model of malaria, and the modeling of its spatial extension. In both models, all mosquito agents are represented individually. In the new spatial model, the agents also possess explicit spatial information. Within a landscape, adult female mosquito agents search for two types of resources: aquatic habitats (AHs) and bloodmeal locations (BMLs). These resources are specified within different spatial patterns, or landscapes. Model verification between the non-spatial and spatial models by means of docking is examined. Using different landscapes, the authors show that mosquito abundance remains unchanged. With the same overall system capacity, varying the density of resources in a landscape does not affect abundance. When the density of resources is constant, the overall capacity drives the system. For the spatial model, using landscapes with different resource densities of both resource-types, the authors show that spatial heterogeneity influences the mosquito population.

scholarly journals Agent-based modelling of foraging behaviour: the impact of spatial heterogeneity on disease risks from faeces in grazing systems

2008 ◽  
Vol 146 (5) ◽  
pp. 507-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. MARION ◽  
L. A. SMITH ◽  
D. L. SWAIN ◽  
R. S. DAVIDSON ◽  
M. R. HUTCHINGS
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Deterministic Model ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Searching Behaviour ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Disease Risks ◽  
Grazing Systems ◽  
The Impact

SUMMARYMany of the most pervasive disease challenges to livestock are transmitted via oral contact with faeces (or by faecal–aerosol) and the current paper focuses on how disease risk may depend on: spatial heterogeneity, animal searching behaviour, different grazing systems and faecal deposition patterns including those representative of livestock and a range of wildlife. A spatially explicit agent-based model was developed to describe the impact of empirically observed foraging and avoidance behaviours on the risk of disease presented by investigative and grazing contact with both livestock and wildlife faeces. To highlight the role of spatial heterogeneity on disease risks an analogous deterministic model, which ignores spatial heterogeneity and searching behaviour, was compared with the spatially explicit agent-based model. The models were applied to assess disease risks in temperate grazing systems. The results suggest that spatial heterogeneity is crucial in defining the disease risks to which individuals are exposed even at relatively small scales. Interestingly, however, although sensitive to other aspects of behaviour such as faecal avoidance, it was observed that disease risk is insensitive to search distance for typical domestic livestock restricted to small field plots. In contrast disease risk is highly sensitive to distributions of faecal contamination, in that contacts with highly clumped distributions of wildlife contamination are rare in comparison to those with more dispersed contamination. Finally it is argued that the model is a suitable framework to study the relative inter- and intra-specific disease risks posed to livestock under different realistic management regimes.

A Spatial Agent-Based Model of Malaria

2012 ◽  
pp. 221-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Niaz Arifin ◽  
Gregory J. Davis ◽  
Ying Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Spatial Model ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Model Verification ◽  
System Capacity ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Mosquito Abundance ◽  
Adult Female Mosquito

In agent-based modeling (ABM), an explicit spatial representation may be required for certain aspects of the system to be modeled realistically. A spatial ABM includes landscapes in which agents seek resources necessary for their survival. The spatial heterogeneity of the underlying landscape plays a crucial role in the resource-seeking process. This study describes a previous agent-based model of malaria, and the modeling of its spatial extension. In both models, all mosquito agents are represented individually. In the new spatial model, the agents also possess explicit spatial information. Within a landscape, adult female mosquito agents search for two types of resources: aquatic habitats (AHs) and bloodmeal locations (BMLs). These resources are specified within different spatial patterns, or landscapes. Model verification between the non-spatial and spatial models by means of docking is examined. Using different landscapes, the authors show that mosquito abundance remains unchanged. With the same overall system capacity, varying the density of resources in a landscape does not affect abundance. When the density of resources is constant, the overall capacity drives the system. For the spatial model, using landscapes with different resource densities of both resource-types, the authors show that spatial heterogeneity influences the mosquito population.

scholarly journals Agent-based model experiments refute Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Carleton ◽  
Brea McCauley ◽  
Andre Costopoulos ◽  
Mark Collard
Keyword(s):  
Negative Selection ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
The Core ◽  
Variable Environments ◽  
Strong Negative Selection ◽  
Ancient Monuments

Ancient monuments represent a puzzle from the perspective of evolutionary theory. It is obvious that their construction would have been costly in terms of energy, but it is not clear how they would have enhanced reproductive success. In the late 1980s, the prominent US archaeologist Robert Dunnell proposed a solution to this conundrum. He argued that wasting energy on monuments and other forms of what he dubbed “cultural elaboration” would have conferred a selective advantage in highly variable environments. In the present paper, we report a study in which we used an agent-based model to test the core prediction of Dunnell’s hypothesis. In the model, the agents inherited a propensity to waste and were subjected to selection in low and high variability environments. The results we obtained do not support the hypothesis. We found that the propensity to waste was subject to strong negative selection regardless of the level of environmental variability. At the start of the simulation runs, agents wasted 50% of the time on average, but selection drove that rate down by more than a third after the first generation, ultimately settling at 5-7% on average. We contend that this casts serious doubt on the ability of Dunnell’s hypothesis to explain instances of cultural elaboration in the archaeological record.

scholarly journals Game of theories: an agent-based model of how variation in contest cost-benefits determines the evolution of contest resolution rules

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson Silva Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
The Self ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Cost Benefits ◽  
Damage Costs ◽  
Assessment Strategies

Game-theory based models are used to understand rules that animals use to settle contests over indivisible resources. However, the empirical literature of contests indicates controversial support to models, with some species supporting different models and other species showing no support to any model. Since strategies used to resolve contests may have different associated costs, it is possible that different conditions have determined the evolution of distinct assessment strategies used by animals. We used an agent-based model to explore the importance of the following conditions: resource availability, probability of reproduction with resource, and damage costs on evolution of assessment strategies. We used self- and mutual-assessment models as a heurist framework to build agents with different assessment strategies. In our model, agents competed for resources in scenarios with different combinations of resource availability, probability of reproduction with resource, and damage costs. We found that agents following the self-assessment with damage strategy were prevalent in scenarios with no probability of reproduction without the resource, independently of other variables. We also found that agents following the non-aggressive strategy occurred in all scenarios. However, agents using the non-aggressive strategy were prevalent only in scenarios with probability of reproduction with the resource. Finally, we observed that agents using mutual-assessment occurred only in a scenario with high risk of damage, low availability of resources, and with probability of reproduction without the resource. These results indicate that agents following the self-assessment with damage and non-aggressive strategies may be able to stay at most scenarios.

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