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MechAnt SIGNED

Behavioural biomechanics of insect herbivory - a case study on leaf-cutter ants

Total Cost €

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EC-Contrib. €

0

Partnership

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 MechAnt project word cloud

Explore the words cloud of the MechAnt project. It provides you a very rough idea of what is the project "MechAnt" about.

demography    ease    sized    foragers    feeding    global    vision    cutter    transform    determinants    social    hypothesis    criteria    reveal    engineering    colony    material    little    innovations    interactions    toughness    workers    hence    cutting    terrestrial    insights    strategies    world    highlight    leaf    herbivorous    link    insects    investigation    mechant    adaptive    proposes    food    security    ecosystem    dominant    eusocial    constraints    feeders    biomechanical    parties    plants    differently    underpinning    insect    mandibular    protection    leaves    engineers    relationship    rigorous    plant    determinant    machine    ranging    organisation    mechanics    performance    pest    cut    ing    ants    evolution    continuing    crop    pose    mechanical    yield    energetic    ergonomic    ant    principal    learning    materials    relations    combine    wear    colonies    herbivore    model    ontogeny    species    quantitatively    herbivores    threat    foraging    ecology    pave    integrating    labour    individual    science    division    nano    behavioural    separate    physical    ecosystems    castes    computer   

Project "MechAnt" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

Coordinator
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE 

Organization address
address: SOUTH KENSINGTON CAMPUS EXHIBITION ROAD
city: LONDON
postcode: SW7 2AZ
website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/

contact info
title: n.a.
name: n.a.
surname: n.a.
function: n.a.
email: n.a.
telephone: n.a.
fax: n.a.

 Coordinator Country United Kingdom [UK]
 Total cost 1˙998˙764 €
 EC max contribution 1˙998˙764 € (100%)
 Programme 1. H2020-EU.1.1. (EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC))
 Code Call ERC-2019-STG
 Funding Scheme ERC-STG
 Starting year 2020
 Duration (year-month-day) from 2020-01-01   to  2024-12-31

 Partnership

Take a look of project's partnership.

# participants  country  role  EC contrib. [€] 
1    IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE UK (LONDON) coordinator 1˙998˙764.00

Map

 Project objective

Insect herbivores are a dominant element in terrestrial ecosystems, and pose a continuing threat to global food security. However, little is known about a key determinant of insect herbivore success: the mechanics of plant-feeding. MechAnt proposes to transform our understanding of insect-plant relations by providing a rigorous biomechanical investigation into how insects cut leaves, using the major ecosystem engineers and principal insect pest of the New World, the leaf-cutter ants, as a model system. Specifically, MechAnt will combine the traditionally separate fields of behavioural ecology, mechanical engineering, materials science, computer vision and machine learning to investigate: (1) the mechanical and energetic constraints determining the cutting ability, and ontogeny of task choice of differently-sized workers, and hence the adaptive value of physical castes in eusocial insects; (2) the relationship between plant material properties, ease of cutting, and mandibular wear, which will reveal the key mechanical determinants of plant-herbivore species interactions; (3) the division of labour, ontogeny and demography of leaf-cutter colonies foraging on leaves of different “toughness”, testing the hypothesis that leaf-cutter colonies are organised according to ergonomic criteria. By integrating insights ranging from nano-scale mechanics up to whole-colony ecology, MechAnt will quantitatively link the mechanical properties of plants with the performance of individual foragers, the organisation of foraging parties, and the demography and social organisation of leaf-cutter ant colonies. The resulting understanding of the biomechanical innovations underpinning the success of the leaf-cutter ants will yield insights into the behavioural ecology of advanced plant-feeders, highlight the role of biomechanical constraints in the behaviour and evolution of herbivorous insects, and pave the way for the development of novel crop protection strategies.

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The information about "MECHANT" are provided by the European Opendata Portal: CORDIS opendata.

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