Effect of individual-level interactions with the nutrient fields on the observed dynamics.

<p>The effect of individual-level interactions with the nutrient fields on the observed dynamics, starting from a homogeneous underlying nutrient field <i>U</i>. We show averages over 100 simulation runs per <i>(δ_deplete, δ_disturb)</i> parameter combination and simulate <i>N = 20</i> individuals. To cover the <i>(δ_deplete, δ_disturb)</i> parameter space, we simulated combinations of 15 equally spaced values for <i>δ_deplete</i> and <i>δ_disturb</i> between <i>0</i> and <i>1</i>, resulting in <i>225</i> parameter combinations. For a smooth illustration of our simulation results, we interpolated between simulation results to obtain a <i>(δ_deplete, δ_disturb)</i> grid at an approximate resolution of <i>0.01</i> units per cell. All other parameter values are given in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0075879#pone-0075879-t001" target="_blank">table 1</a>. Panel (a) shows the average consumption of individuals, normalised by <i>δ_deplete</i>, (b) shows the number of groups in the population, (c) the size of the largest group, (d) the tortuosity of individual movement, (e) shows the polarisation of the largest group in the population and (f) the angular momentum of the largest group.