Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 18: Poster VI

BP 18.2: Poster

Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 14:00–16:00, P2/2OG

Morphodynamics in the Foraging of Physarum polycephalum — •Lisa Schick, Mirna Kramar, and Karen Alim — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany

Foraging behaviour of animals is generally described as optimized for maximal energy uptake per time spend foraging within optimal foraging theory. Food sources often occur as food patches, so that foraging becomes a balance between time spent for exploration and time spent for patch exploitation leading to the question at which point a patch should be abandoned. Foraging behaviour in a patchy habitat can also be observed in unicellular but spatially extended organisms like Physarum polycephalum. However, it is unclear which foraging strategy the large and adaptive network-like morphology allows for. The plasmodial network of P. polycephalum adapts its morphology in the process of foraging by mass transport. Recent observations show that on encounter of a food patch, depending on body size, the whole body is relocated for exploitation. We here study the morphological changes as a function of network size and nutritional state by introducing a model for the exploration and exploitation phases in P. polycephalum. We estimate the energy uptake from our foraging observations in order to obtain rules for the foraging behaviour.