Archetypal Analysis of 2D Patterns in Emergent Distributed Computation

University Of Montana, Missoula MT

Investigators

Abstract

Do leaves compute? That is, how do they solve the problem of optimizing CO2 uptake while minimizing water loss during respiration? The devices of respiration, the leaf stomata, are also the information processing units in the system, and they self-organize to locate an optimal solution given the environmental conditions. This project will explore the evidence of emergent behavior in leaf stomata during respiration through dynamic pattern analysis and the use of computational mechanics ideas. It is interdisciplinary, involving mathematicians, physicists, and biologists, and will merge data from biological experiments and the information processing theory of distributed computational systems.