Power-law versus exponential distributions of animal group sizes

DOI10.1016/S0022-5193(03)00192-9MaRDI QIDQ2177376zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Hiro-Sato Niwa

Publication date 6 May 2020

Published in Journal of Theoretical Biology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0305241

zbMATH Keywords

power lawstochastic differential equationsize distributionanimal group

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ecology (92D40)

Abstract: There has been some confusion concerning the animal group-size: an exponential distribution was deduced by maximizing the entropy; lognormal distributions were practically used; a power-law decay with exponent {3/2} was proposed in physical analogy to aerosol condensation. Here I show that the animal group-size distribution follows a power-law decay with exponent 1, and is truncated at a cut-off size which is the expected size of the groups an arbitrary individual engages in. An elementary model of animal aggregation based on binary splitting and coalescing on contingent encounter is presented. The model predicted size distribution holds for various data from pelagic fishes and mammalian herbivores in the wild.

Recommendations

• A first principles derivation of animal group size distributions
• The dynamics of group formation
• A maximum entropy framework for nonexponential distributions
• Coagulation-fragmentation model for animal group-size statistics
• Self-similar spreading in a merging-splitting model of animal group size

Cites work

• The dynamics of group formation
• The equilibrium behavior of reversible coagulation-fragmentation processes
• The steady-state distributions of coagulation-fragmentation processes

Cited in

(16)

• Power-law scaling in dimension-to-biomass relationship of fish schools
• Coagulation-fragmentation model for animal group-size statistics
• Fitting statistical distributions to sea duck count data: implications for survey design and abundance estimation
• Allelomimesis as a generic clustering mechanism for interacting agents
• Temporal oscillations in Becker-Döring equations with atomization
• Expected size distributions in models of group dynamics
• Hierarchy in social organization
• Aggregation dynamics explain vegetation patch-size distributions
• Variability in group size and the evolution of collective action
• Space-irrelevant scaling law for fish school sizes
• Numerical approximation of a coagulation-fragmentation model for animal group size statistics
• Non-linear advection-diffusion equations approximate swarming but not schooling populations
• Investigating small fish schools: selection of school -- formation models by means of general linear models and numerical simulations
• Self-similar spreading in a merging-splitting model of animal group size
• A first principles derivation of animal group size distributions
• The dynamics of group formation

This page was built for publication: Power-law versus exponential distributions of animal group sizes

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2177376)