Effects of arena geometry on fish collective movement

Sanjeev K., Akshay (2023) Effects of arena geometry on fish collective movement. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

Text (MS dissertation of Akshay Sanjeev K. (18MS128)) Thesis_18MS128.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (3MB)

Abstract

A wide range of living organisms exhibits coordinated movement and other collective behaviour. Scientists from various disciplines are interested in quantitatively characterising the dynamics of collective motion and the underlying mechanisms. Laboratory experiments offer a controlled set-up to test many theoretical predictions and underlying assumptions. It is well known that boundaries of experimental setups can influence animal movement as boundary interactions are inevitable. But, how exactly the geometric constraints affect the outcome of collective behaviour experiments in the laboratory has rarely been explored. Researchers experiment with different arena geometries depending on the kind of questions on which the experiment is designed. I studied the mesoscopic dynamics of fish schools in different geometrical conditions to understand the influence of boundary conditions on group-level behaviour and dynamics of the school. I documented the fish schools using high throughput video recording and then used computer visionbased methods to track each fish. I have constructed stochastic differential equations to capture the collective dynamics of such groups in various arenas and group sizes from first and second jump moments from time series data and compared them. I used Tiger Barb(Puntigrus tetrazona) schools as my model system, and I experimented with three geometries; circle, annulus and rectangle. It seems that the boundary interactions are influencing the overall collective behaviour of schools quantitatively.

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