"Motion Ecology", an innovative research approach to the study of the movement of living beings, was developed at the initiative of a researcher from the Hebrew University

The innovative approach was presented in a special issue of the prestigious journal PNAS

"Movement Ecology" - an innovative approach to the study of the movement of living beings developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was presented in a special issue of the prestigious American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which was published this week.

editor of the special issue, Prof. Ran Natan, The head of the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology at the Institute of Life Sciences of the Hebrew University initiated the establishment of an international research group several years ago to promote the study of the ecology of the movement. The special issue of PNAS brings together 13 articles and summarizes the fruits of the group's work as well as the contribution of many researchers from around the world to this new field of research.

The group operated in the academic year XNUMX at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University. The group was headed by Prof. Natan and its members also include Prof. Ronan Kadmon from the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology at the Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University, and researchers from Berkeley, Davis and Rutgers Universities in the USA, the Spanish Research Council and Ben Gurion University.

According to Prof. Natan "One of the most prominent characteristics of life on Earth is the ability to move and the great variety of ways animals, plants and microorganisms move through space. Various phenomena of the movement of living beings such as the spread of epidemics and swarms of locusts have left their mark on human history, as well as the mobility of man himself. Since the dawn of time, man recorded the movement of animals in ancient wall paintings, and in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, the exact timing of migrating birds is recorded.

The study of movement today is characterized by a large number of research fields, each of which concentrates on the study of a specific movement system in a group of closely related species. Although this research led to many important insights, so far no integrated approach has been developed that would lead to the development of a theory about basic principles necessary for understanding ecological and evolutionary processes essential to the study of the movement of all living things. The purpose of the "ecology of movement" approach is to provide a conceptual basis and a set of tools necessary for the development of an inclusive theory."

Prof. Natan explains that the "ecology of movement" approach is based on a mechanism-based model with four basic components, the combination of which enables movement of the individual, a model described in the opening article of the special issue. The first component is the motivation to move - hunger, for example, will encourage the individual to move in search of food sources, while a sense of risk can cause a quick departure from the danger zone. The second component describes adaptations that enable the movement, for example the skeletal-muscular system that allows a cheetah to sprint quickly or thin hairs that allow the transport of the seeds with the help of the wind. The third component is the ability to navigate with the help of which the individual can absorb information about his environment which affects the direction and timing of movement. The fourth component includes the external factors that affect movement, such as food sources or the presence of bandmates, competitors and predators. The combination of these four components creates the movement pathway, which is the fifth and final component of the movement ecology model.

The special issue also includes an article reviewing studies from the last decade that deal with a wide range of forms of movement and types of organisms and shows that the proposed model can be easily applied to each of the hundreds of works reviewed; Two articles presenting comprehensive theoretical approaches to movement research; Two articles demonstrating the application of the approach to the study of the movement of plants; And six other articles dealing with the movement of different types of a variety of animals: butterflies, fish, sea turtles, eagles, elephants and other mammals.