{"id":5,"date":"2015-12-14T14:24:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T14:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/use.ulb.ac.be\/wordpress\/?page_id=5"},"modified":"2025-02-12T16:08:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T14:08:44","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One can readily sense the complexity of\u00a0collective behaviours<\/strong>\u00a0by looking at the coordinated movements of flying birds or at the efficient division of labour between workers in the hive and in the anthill.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Unit of Social Ecology\u00a0(USE<\/strong>\u00a0laboratory) has a long experience in the field of behavioural and ecological sciences, with a special focus on the collective organization of insect societies and the interactions with other organisms and the environment.\u00a0 USE<\/strong> carries out research in a wide range of topics including ethology, chemical ecology, insect physiology, socio-ecology, network and community ecology.<\/p>\n

We are interested in\u00a0identifying the factors that drive social life<\/strong>, using ants as main -but not exclusive- biological models.\u00a0 We study the mechanisms that lead to the emergence of collective behaviours, such as temporal patterns of synchronized activity, coordinated nest building, integrated network of foraging trails, efficient division of labour between workers or complex symbiotic interactions with nest associated organisms (myrmecophiles) and mutualistic aphids in and around the nest. We aim not only to understand how ant societies and their interaction networks function but also how they respond to existing stressors, such as pathogens, and emerging challenges, including habitat deterioration and global environmental change.<\/p>\n

Aside from basic research on insect sociality and interactions, we also deal with more\u00a0applied\u00a0issues<\/strong>\u00a0related, for example, to swarm intelligence, robotics, new modalities to control animal populations or impact of ant fauna on local ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One can readily sense the complexity of\u00a0collective behaviours\u00a0by looking at the coordinated movements of flying birds or at the efficient division of labour between workers in the hive and in the anthill. The\u00a0Unit of Social Ecology\u00a0(USE\u00a0laboratory) has a long experience in the field of behavioural and ecological sciences, with a special focus on the collective…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1336,"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/use.ulb.be\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}