Ant Wars: How Ant Colonies Compete for Space
Ants are among the most abundant organisms on earth, with a recent estimate placing their number around 20 quadrillion individuals and their biomass around 20% of human biomass. They play key roles in ecosystems around the world, contributing to seed dispersal, soil aeration and nutrient cycling. However, invasive ants such as the Argentine Ant are giving a bad rap to ants in general by invading people's homes and also causing major crop damage. Worse, such invasive ants often create cooperative super-colonies that spread over hundreds of miles, driving out native ant species within their range. What kinds of behavioral interactions are driving this, and why are certain species/populations/colonies better able to resist such invasions? Work on this project will involve field observations and lab experiments designed to characterize direct and indirect interactions between individuals and whole colonies of ants. To monitor colonies in the field, we hope to build and deploy a set of Raspberry Pi-based field cameras. To assess how ant species respond to each other’s pheromones, we hope to extract and chemically analyze pheromones for use in behavioral experiments.
You will be part of a team of students working on a set of related interdisciplinary projects, using biology, mathematics, computation, and engineering to solve problems of biological interest. The variety of techniques and approaches will give you an opportunity to explore your interests and develop new skills. This project may have practical implications for conservation and has connections to the study of complex systems and artificial intelligence. There may be opportunities to continue the work in a senior thesis, present at a regional or national conference, and/or co-author future publications.