2026-04-04T03:00:03Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:2445/2202782025-12-04T20:46:02Zcom_2072_1057col_2072_478822col_2072_478914col_2072_478917

00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Gimeno Rosell, Elisabet author Puy, Andreu author March Pons, David author Miguel López, María del Carmen author Pastor Satorras, Romualdo author 2025-04-04T16:52:39Z 2025-04-04T16:52:39Z 2023-10-02 2025-04-04T16:52:39Z Moving animal groups transmit information through propagating waves or behavioral cascades, exhibiting characteristics akin to systems near a critical point from statistical physics. Using data from freely swimming schooling fish in an experimental tank, we investigate spontaneous behavioral cascades involving turning avalanches, where large directional shifts propagate across the group. We analyze several avalanche metrics and provide a detailed picture of the dynamics associated with turning avalanches, employing tools from avalanche behavior in condensed-matter physics and seismology. Our results identify power-law distributions and robust scale-free behavior through data collapses and scaling relationships, confirming a necessary condition for criticality in fish schools. We explore the biological function of turning avalanches and link them to collective decision-making processes in selecting a new movement direction for the school. We report relevant boundary effects arising from interactions with the tank walls and influential roles of boundary individuals. Finally, spatial and temporal correlations in avalanches are explored using the concept of aftershocks from seismology, revealing clustering of avalanche events below a designated timescale and an Omori law with a faster decay rate than observed in earthquakes. Peixos Models biològics Fishes Biological models Signatures of criticality in turning avalanches of schooling fish