Environmental Control of Seasonal Breeding in Diverse Habitats

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Wingfield 9631350 The environmental factors, such as daylength, temperature and humidity, play an important role in the regulation of reproductive success in animals in the wild. These factors affect neural and endocrine function that facilitate adaptive behaviors of animals to their environment. Dr. Wingfield is conducting laboratory and field studies to determine how environmental signals interact with social cues to regulate neuroendocrine and endocrine secretions that orchestrate reproductive development and success. Identification of sensory modalities and neural pathways by which environmental information impinges upon the brain are also under investigation. These studies represent a highly integrated blend of field investigations coupled with mathematical treatment of natural history data that will then interface directly with physiological, cell and molecular mechanisms. The results will provide crucial new information on how organisms interpret environmental information which in turn could have practical application as to how animals, particularly vertebrates, may respond to global change in the near future.