Biological Sciences Colloquium: Dr. David A. Spade

Over the last several decades, oceanographers have been particularly interested in the motion of zooplankton and other aquatic animals. Common techniques for modeling this motion involve assuming that the animal moves at random, or that there is little relationship between the moves the animal makes at close time steps. However, natural phenomena among zooplankton suggest that their movement is not totally at random. To investigate this, it is necessary to know what the animal does, rather than just knowing where it is. In this talk, I examine the actions the animal takes along its trajectory and the importance of each. The animal takes an action at each time step, but some are more important than others in determining the overall shape of the trajectory. I examine the trajectory to determine where the “kinks” in it lie. In other words, where does the animal change direction significantly? I present a method of constructing a sequence of actions that the animal takes to get from one point to another and discuss the implications of this technique for future problems.