Study Shows How People Can Learn Systemic Stability from Ants

An international team of scientists led by biologist Professor Iain Couzin, co-director of the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior" at the University of Konstanz and director of the co-located Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, and Matthew Lutz, a postdoctoral researcher in Couzin's lab, have discovered a new form of collective behavior in ants.

Their research demonstrates how ants use scaffolds, self-organized architectural constructs, to ensure traffic flow on sloped surfaces. Individual sensing and decision-making lead to scaffold forming, which enables the colony as a whole to respond dynamically to unexpected environmental challenges.

Systemic Stability

The rigidity and inflexibility of these systems, as well as their centralized or hierarchical control mechanisms, make them susceptible to single-point perturbations. Biological processes, on the other hand, often use distributed control and can withstand extreme environmental conditions.

Iain Couzin, a biologist, and his team looked at how ants coordinate traffic during foraging. Their research looks into how Eciton burchellii ants assemble themselves into living architectural constructs. The researchers suggest a scaffold construction process in which each ant changes its actions based on its previous experiences. This basic yet powerful proportional system control mechanism from the animal world may be used to inspire artificial system designs.

Related Article: Modern Pesticides' Harmful Effects on Bees Worsened in the Last Decade

Eciton (Army Ants)

Army ants, also known as Eciton, are social insects that live in huge groups of hundreds of thousands of workers. They search for prey throughout the day in large swarm attacks that can cover an area the size of four tennis courts in a single day. In the tropical forest, they are among the top invertebrate predators.

The PNAS study describes one type of architecture these ants construct -- called 'scaffolds' by the authors -- for the first time in detail. Under natural conditions, scaffolds form when E. burchellii trails cross inclined surfaces, such as branches or rocks. Individual ants stop and cling to the surface, remaining fixed in place. The ants provide additional grip for other ants, which continue along their path, marching over the immobile conspecifics.

Natural Scaffolds

Scaffolds were shown to be highly adaptable, growing to different shapes and sizes depending on the context. They form rapidly in response to disruption, preventing ants from slipping and falling along the foraging trail. This is especially important when you are transporting valuable resources like prey through dense traffic.

The further ants initially slid or dropped off the table, the steeper the hill. The number of sliding and dropping ants fell to a low level until a scaffold had formed. When ants cross surfaces inclined more than 40 degrees, they form scaffolds, according to the researchers.

Adapting Into Human Society

A basic mechanism for scaffold formation has been proposed by scientists. When an animal loses its balance on a sloped surface and then regains it, it has a natural instinct to scratch the stone. It either begins or joins a scaffold in this way. The less slick the tilted surface gets, as more animals demonstrate the action. Since the trailing ants may use the current scaffold to cross freely, the structure gradually stops rising.

Also Read: The Evolution of Glow-in-the-Dark Insects, Shows Study

For more animal news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!