Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP180100154

Funded Activity Summary

Modelling collective behaviour to protect social insect ecosystem services. This project aims to use mathematical models and computer simulations and biological experiments to investigate how social insects adapt to environmental stress, for example due to climate change and pollution. Fundamental to the adaptability of social insects are the complex mechanisms that allow colonies to maintain a carefully balanced division of labour (DOL). This project builds on evolutionary game theory to develop a new approach for analysing how environmental factors impact on DOL and thus colony viability. The project will deliver new methods to assess and predict the impact of environmental stress This will ultimately help to protect these keystones of biodiversity and the significant ecosystem services they provide as pest-control agents, through pollination, seed dispersal, and soil conditioning.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 09-02-2018

End Date: 31-08-2022

Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects

Funding Amount: $325,250.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Simulation and Modelling | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Behavioural Ecology | Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Expanding Knowledge in the Information and Computing Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences |

Other Keywords

Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing | Behavioural Ecology | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Information and Computing Sciences | Simulation and Modelling

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