In addition to being visually stunning, schools of herring, herds of wildebeest and countless other groups of organisms that act in concert can help complex ecosystems maintain their diversity and stability, new research by Oregon State University shows.
In addition to being visually stunning, schools of herring, herds of wildebeest and countless other groups of organisms that act in concert can help complex ecosystems maintain their diversity and stability, new research by Oregon State University shows.
Published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the study demonstrates that when individuals band together to consume resources as a collective group, the surrounding ecosystem is prone to be more resilient and able to support a wider range of species.
The findings could be an important step toward understanding how living systems stay on an even keel; collective behavior is ubiquitous on the planet, playing a prominent role in everything from bacterial biofilms to human cities.
“These collectives show highly organized, large-scale patterns in behavior that emerge spontaneously from localized interactions among nearby individuals,” said Ben Dalziel of the OSU College of Science. “Our question was, what is the significance of collective behavior in ecosystems?”
Read more at: Oregon State University
Blue rockfish (Photo Credit: Katie Davis)
