TY - JOUR
T1 - How ants use quorum sensing to estimate the average quality of a fluctuating resource
AU - Franks, Nigel R.
AU - Stuttard, Jonathan P.
AU - Doran, Carolina
AU - Esposito, Julian C.
AU - Master, Maximillian C.
AU - Sendova-Franks, Ana B.
AU - Masuda, Naoki
AU - Britton, Nicholas F.
N1 - Funding Information:
We wish to thank all members of the Ant Lab at the University of Bristol with whom we discussed all stages of this research. We are grateful to Tim Fawcett and Andrew Higginson for the discussion of issues relating to fluctuating environments. Carolina Doran thanks the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (grant SFRH/BI/51712/2011). Naoki Masuda thanks JST, CREST, Japan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/7/8
Y1 - 2015/7/8
N2 - We show that one of the advantages of quorum-based decision-making is an ability to estimate the average value of a resource that fluctuates in quality. By using a quorum threshold, namely the number of ants within a new nest site, to determine their choice, the ants are in effect voting with their feet. Our results show that such quorum sensing is compatible with homogenization theory such that the average value of a new nest site is determined by ants accumulating within it when the nest site is of high quality and leaving when it is poor. Hence, the ants can estimate a surprisingly accurate running average quality of a complex resource through the use of extraordinarily simple procedures.
AB - We show that one of the advantages of quorum-based decision-making is an ability to estimate the average value of a resource that fluctuates in quality. By using a quorum threshold, namely the number of ants within a new nest site, to determine their choice, the ants are in effect voting with their feet. Our results show that such quorum sensing is compatible with homogenization theory such that the average value of a new nest site is determined by ants accumulating within it when the nest site is of high quality and leaving when it is poor. Hence, the ants can estimate a surprisingly accurate running average quality of a complex resource through the use of extraordinarily simple procedures.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84936856640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84936856640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/srep11890
DO - 10.1038/srep11890
M3 - Article
C2 - 26153535
AN - SCOPUS:84936856640
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 5
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 11890
ER -