Fish In Silico with Hydrodynamic and Social Interactions Forces – FISHSIF

Collective movement in living organisms is a phenomenon of self-organization of a large number of individuals observed in nature from the micrometer scale (bacteria, plankton) to meters (birds) or even kilometers (school of sardines). This organization at a scale much larger than each individual is the result of interactions with the social (conspecifics), ecological (predators) and physical (obstacles, current) environment. The goal of this project is to understand how the coupling between ethodynamic and hydrodynamic interactions influence the organization of small fish schools, and how a complex environment can modify this organization. Thus, we hope to understand how the relative balance between social and hydrodynamic forces evolves with environmental conditions. To do so, our numerical simulations will combine a cognitive model with the direct resolution of 3D hydrodynamics. The construction of the physical model, in particular the balance between physical and behavioral constraints, will benefit from a constant dialogue between in vivo experiments in controlled environments and theory.