Abstract A challenge faced by individuals and groups of many species is determining how resources and activities should be spatially distributed: centralized or decentralized. This distribution problem is hard to understand due to the many costs and benefits of each strategy in different settings. Ant colonies are faced by this problem and demonstrate two solutions: 1) centralizing resources in a single nest (monodomy) and 2) decentralizing by spreading resources across many nests (polydomy). Despite the possibilities for using this system to study the centralization/decentralization problem, the trade-offs associated with using either polydomy or monodomy are poorly understood due to a lack of empirical data and cohesive theory. Here, we present a dynamic network model of a population of ant nests which is based on observations of a facultatively polydomous ant species (Formica lugubris). We use the model to test several key hypotheses for costs and benefits of polydomy and monodomy and show that decentralization is advantageous when resource acquisition costs are high, nest size is limited, resources are clustered, and there is a risk of nest destruction, but centralization prevails when resource availability fluctuates and nest size is limited. Our model explains the phylogenetic and ecological diversity of polydomous ants, demonstrates several trade-offs of decentralization and centralization, and provides testable predictions for empirical work on ants and in other systems.

中文翻译：

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蚁群去中心化和中心化的成本和收益

摘要 许多物种的个体和群体面临的一个挑战是确定资源和活动如何在空间上分布：集中还是分散。由于不同环境下每种策略的成本和收益各异，因此这种分配问题很难理解。蚁群面临着这个问题，并展示了两种解决方案：1）将资源集中在单个巢中（单一性）和2）通过将资源分散到多个巢中（一夫多妻制）来分散资源。尽管有可能使用该系统来研究集中/分散问题，但由于缺乏经验数据和内聚理论，人们对与使用一夫多妻制或一夫一妻制相关的权衡知之甚少。在这里，我们提出了一个蚁巢种群的动态网络模型，该模型基于对兼性多居蚂蚁（Formica lugubris）的观察。我们使用该模型检验了多头性和一头性的成本和收益的几个关键假设，结果表明，当资源获取成本较高、巢穴规模有限、资源聚集且存在巢穴破坏风险时，分散化具有优势，但集中化则具有优势。当资源可用性波动且巢穴大小有限时，这种情况就会盛行。我们的模型解释了多居蚂蚁的系统发育和生态多样性，展示了分散和集中的几种权衡，并为蚂蚁和其他系统的实证工作提供了可检验的预测。