Date of Completion

2015

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Jason Stockwell

Second Advisor

James Bagrow

Third Advisor

Daniel Bentil

Keywords

Agent-Based, Modeling, Ecology, Migration

Abstract

Recent work indicates that the macro-invertebrate Mysis diluviana exhibits partial diel vertical migration (DVM), whereby one part of the population remains on the lake bottom at night while the other migrates up the water column. The drivers underlying the decision to migrate remain unknown. We developed an agent-based model that can simulate thousands of individual mysids decision-making processes at an hourly time step throughout a year. The model takes into account a daily and seasonally changing environment, including light, temperature, food availability across habitats and body con- dition. We found that the simulated Mysis population is highly sensitive to changes in the energy cost of performing migration. We have also devel- oped a graphical user interface to help disseminate the results and testing of hypotheses without the need for the researcher to edit code. In addition to testing hypotheses about migration drivers, the model, once parameters have been calibrated with real data, will help facilitate more efficient field sampling and prediction of resource availability for mysivorous fishes by evaluating the potential for seasonality in Mysis migration patterns.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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