Evolutionary trends in fish schools in heterogeneous environments

Individual-based modelling has contributed substantially to the understanding of fish schooling behaviour. Schooling is considered to grant several advantages, such as increased defense against predators and increased foraging success. Whereas the former has been well studied with empirical investigations and different modelling approaches, the latter has not received as much attention. Foraging success is considerably influenced by the emergent property of schools to locate and exploit heterogeneously distributed resources more efficiently than solitary fish. However, successful resource exploitation depends on individual fish properties as well as properties of the school in relation to patch size and spatial distribution of resources. Thus, schooling will be favourable in specific environmental conditions and less efficient in others.