How superdiffusion gets arrested : ecological encounters explain shift from Lévy to Brownian movement

摘要: Ecological theory uses Brownian motion as a default template for describing ecological movement, despite limited mechanistic underpinning. The generality of has recently been challenged by empirical studies that highlight alternative movement patterns animals, especially when foraging in resource-poor environments. Yet, reveal animals moving fashion resources are abundant. We demonstrate Einstein's original collision-induced physics provides parsimonious, explanation these observations. Here, results from frequent encounters between organisms dense In density-controlled experiments, mussels shifted Levy towards with increasing density. When the analysis was restricted to moves not truncated encounters, this shift did occur. Using theoretical argument, we explain any pattern approximates at high-resource densities, provided is interrupted upon encounters. Hence, observed does indicate density-dependent change strategy but rather collisions. Our emphasize need more use ecology, highlighting rich environments, emerges interactions, than being pattern.