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Updated: Oct 30, 2025

Mapping the Emergent Spatial Organization of Mammalian Cells using Micropatterns and Quantitative Imaging

Mapping the Emergent Spatial Organization of Mammalian Cells using Micropatterns and Quantitative Imaging

Published on: April 30, 2019

Resource availability and heterogeneity shape the self-organisation of regular spatial patterning.

Jessica A Castillo Vardaro^1,2, Juan A Bonachela³, Christopher C M Baker^1,4

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Ecology Letters

|July 2, 2021

Summary

Competition and resource availability shape termite colony spacing, creating ordered patterns. Environmental context influences these social insect ecosystem engineers and overall ecosystem productivity.

Keywords:

coupled human-natural systems ecosystem engineers emergent properties rangeland management self-organised spatial patterning semi-arid African savannas spatial heterogeneity termite mounds territorial interference competition

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Behavioral Ecology
Theoretical Ecology

Background:

Understanding large-scale ecological patterns and their impact on ecosystem functioning is a key challenge.
Fungus-farming termites provide a model system to study how competition and spatial heterogeneity influence colony dispersion patterns.

Discussion:

Inter-nest distances increase with nest size and resource scarcity, indicating strong competition.
Ordered spatial patterns emerge in models under high resource availability and low heterogeneity.
Environmental context critically shapes pattern formation by social-insect ecosystem engineers.

Key Insights:

Competition and resource availability are primary drivers of termite colony spacing.
Dynamical modeling reveals mechanisms of pattern regularity and system-wide productivity effects.
Environmental factors explain variability in termite-engineered ecosystems.

Outlook:

Further research can explore the long-term consequences of these patterns on ecosystem resilience.
Investigating other social insect systems can reveal broader principles of pattern formation.
This study provides a framework for understanding how environmental context shapes ecological patterns.