Informal Seminar Statistical Physics Thursday 29 May at 2 pm

[Statistical Physics]

CONDENSED MATTER AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS SECTION

Joint ICTP/SISSA INFORMAL SEMINAR on Statistical Physics
---------------------------------------------------------


THURSDAY, 29 May 2014  -  2:00 p.m.

Venue: Luigi Stasi Seminar Room, Leonardo Building, first floor



Guillermo ABRAMSON
Statistical and Interdisciplinary Physics Group, CAB
Instituto Balseiro and CONICET, Bariloche, Argentina



"SPACE USE BY FORAGERS WITH RENEWABLE RESOURCES"



Abstract
--------

We are participating in a project to study and understand a keystone 
mutualistic system in the Patagonian temperate forest. It is composed of 
two specialist partners: a small arboreal marsupial that feeds on the 
fruits of a hemiparasite shrub and disperses it seeds. As part of this 
effort we have described the movement of the animals in a heterogeneous 
landscape as a walk that dynamically affects its substrate.

Our simplest model provides an insight on a number of relevant and 
non-intuitive facts. Even without memory of the good places to feed and 
no explicit cost of moving, we observe the emergence of a finite home 
range. The reason for this is that memory of the usage of the landscape 
is kept in the landscape itself. The arising paths looks surprisingly 
similar to real animal tracks. We characterize this walks and their use 
of the resources in several statistical ways. Preliminary results on 
population effects are explored by means of a system of two non 
(directly) interacting animals.

This work is a first step towards a complex model that will take into 
consideration the interaction between plants and seed dispersers and the 
synergistic effect that arises from their mutualistic interaction. 
Despite its inspiration on a very specific system, this first step is of 
very general application and may be of interest in other contexts.