Effect of landscape heterogeneity on termite tunnel pattern: Simulation study

Authored by Sang-Hee Lee

Date Published: 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.aspen.2018.11.001

Sponsors: Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) Korean National Research Council

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Although the environment in which termites live is very heterogeneous, most experimental studies on the termite tunnel patterns have been conducted on homogeneous sand substrates. In order to explore how the heterogeneity affects tunnel patterns, I developed an agent-based model to simulate termite tunneling behavior at the individual level. In this model, grid space consists of easy and difficult areas for tunneling. Heterogeneity, H, was defined as the degree of the mixture of the two areas. The tunnel patterns formed by changing the number of termites, N, and H were quantitatively characterized by territory circularity and the territory area. These patterns were categorized into two groups, one with a small territory area and high circularity (group 1) and the other with a large area and low circularity (group 2). Considering the previous study that the termite populations with high N values have high territorial scalability, it can be said that the territories belonging to group 2 have higher foraging abilities and viability than those belonging to group 1. The simulation results showed that the tunnel patterns generated for small N and high H belonged to group 2. This implies that the heterogeneity can make a positive contribution to the expansion of the foraging area by effectively focusing the foraging energy of a termite population. I briefly discussed the mechanism of this positive role and the limitations of this simulation study. In addition, I discussed issues that need to be resolved in the near future to overcome the limitations.

Tags

behavior models Heterogeneity Search Temperature Agent-based model Isoptera Rhinotermitidae Population-size Foraging efficiency Termite tunnel pattern Western subterranean termite Territory Sand