An Introduction to Modeling Migratory Behavior of Fishes

Abstract

This paper reviews models of basic fish movement patterns and their incorporation into models of fish migration. Computer simulations of various types of kineses and taxes have led researchers to the conclusion that only certain types of turning response are capable of producing directed movement of organisms. Klinokinesis-with-adaptation is possibly the most realistic model of the movement of fish along a stimulus gradient. In modeling fish migration, however, simpler models of movement, such as biased random walk models, are more convenient to use. A biased random walk model of the migration of a group of fish in a hypothetical ocean-coastal region is described. Environmental heterogeneity is built into the model to simulate a realistic situation. It is shown that such a model is equivalent to an advection-diffusion partial differential equation model. The results of the advection-diffusion model are compared with those of the biased random walk model.