Biomedical subjects

Ola Olsson

Publications and source records attributed to Ola Olsson.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology.

Information is a crucial currency for animals from both a behavioural and evolutionary perspective. Adaptive behaviour relies upon accurate estimation of relevant ecological parameters; the better informed an individual, the better it can develop and adjust its behaviour to meet the demands of a variable world. Here, we focus on the burgeoning interest in the impact of ecological uncertainty on adaptation, and the means by which it can be reduced by gathering information, from both 'passive' and 'responsive' sources. Our overview demonstrates the value of adopting an explicitly informational approach, and highlights the components that one needs to develop useful approaches to studying information use by animals. We propose a quantitative framework, based on statistical decision theory, for analysing animal information use in evolutionary ecology. Our purpose is to promote an integrative approach to studying information use by animals, which is itself integral to adaptive animal behaviour and organismal biology.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Geography, biogeography, and why some countries are rich and others are poor.

The most important event in human economic history before the industrial revolution was the Neolithic transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to sedentary agriculture, beginning approximately 10,000 years ago. The transition made possible the human population explosion, the rise of non-food-producing specialists, and the acceleration of technological progress that led eventually to the industrial revolution. But the transition occurred at different times in different regions of the world, with big consequences for the present-day economic conditions of populations indigenous to each region. In this article, we show that differences in biogeographic initial conditions and in geography largely account for the different timings of the Neolithic transition and, thereby, ultimately help account for the 100-fold differences among the prosperity of nations today. The effects of biogeography and geography on the wealth of nations are partly mediated by the quality of present-day institutions but also are partly independent of institutional quality.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Does information sharing promote group foraging?

Individuals may join groups for several reasons, one of which is the possibility of sharing information about the quality of a foraging area. Sharing information in a patch-foraging scenario gives each group member an opportunity to make a more accurate estimate of the quality of the patch. In this paper we present a mathematical model in which we study the effect of group size on patch-leaving policy and per capita intake rate. In the model, group members share information equally in a random search for food. Food is distributed in patches according to a negative binomial distribution. A prediction from our model is that, the larger the group, the earlier each group member should leave the current patch. We also find that the benefit from enhanced exchange of information does not exceed the cost of sharing food with group members. The per capita intake rate decreases as the group size increases. Therefore, animals should only form groups when other factors outweigh the costs, which is easiest to achieve when the travelling time is short.

Animal Communication↗