Collaborative Research: A Comparative Systems Approach to Complex Animal Signaling

许多动物使用不止一种感官来相互交流，例如，将声音与颜色或动作结合起来。了解动物信号为什么如此复杂，以及它们是如何进化的，是许多领域科学家的主要研究重点。这样的研究可以增加我们关于感官如何工作，注意力和学习如何改变知觉，以及不断变化的环境如何影响交流等方面的知识。在这个项目中，来自内布拉斯加-林肯大学和奥本大学的科学家使用系统的方法来研究在一个发育良好的动物系统中求偶展示的进化。该团队使用基因组学重建了超过23个物种的进化史。对于每个物种，他们还详细描述了交流系统，以及它如何随着环境条件的变化而变化。然后，他们测试关于系统属性的假设，如健壮性和灵活性/进化性。该项目将促进我们对复杂动物信号的理解，并测试工程学和基因组学关于系统结构和功能的长期理论。该项目涉及本科生和研究生的培养。研究成果还将被整合到一个科学展览中，在内布拉斯加州和阿拉巴马州的自然历史博物馆向公众开放。尽管人们认识到复杂信号在动物交流中的普遍性和重要性，但由于缺乏能够比较不同类群之间的信号系统并评估进化和功能含义的假设和工具，对信号复杂性的进化分析的进展一直受到限制。这个项目开发和测试了一种新的理论和经验范式，通过将系统方法整合到使用分裂狼蜘蛛的动物交流研究中。北美裂殖吸虫包括23个物种，它们在使用振动和视觉求偶展示方面有所不同。具体目标是(1)评估不同环境中每个物种的振动和视觉求偶信号的结构和动态；(2)生成稳健的系统发育；(3)使用系统发育比较方法来检验(I)退化有助于在变化的条件下保持稳定性的假设，(Ii)退化是否促进(或限制)精化和信号分歧。同时测量不同背景下的振动和视觉信号，再加上强大的系统发展史，将为复杂性的进化分析提供无与伦比的机会。这项研究将促进对复杂动物交流的进化、多样化和维持的综合和全面的了解，并为跨不同类群和信号系统的类似研究提供路线图。

Many animals use more than one of their senses to communicate with each other, for example, combining sounds with colors or motions. Understanding why animal signals are so complex and how they evolved is a major research focus for scientists in many fields. Such research can add to our knowledge about how the senses work, how attention and learning shift perception, and how changing environments can impact communication (among others). In this project, scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Auburn University use a systems approach to study the evolution of courtship displays in a well-developed animal system. The team uses genomics to reconstruct the evolutionary history of more than 23 species. For each species, they also describe the communication system in detail and how it changes with environmental conditions. They then test hypotheses about system properties such as robustness and flexibility/evolvability. The project will advance our understanding of complex animal signals, and test long-standing theories from engineering and genomics about system structure and function. The project involves the training of undergraduate and graduate students. Research findings will also be integrated into a science exhibit that will be made available to the general public at natural history museums in Nebraska and Alabama. Despite an appreciation of the prevalence and importance of complex signals in animal communication, progress towards an evolutionary analysis of signal complexity has been constrained by a lack of hypotheses and tools that can compare signaling systems across taxa and assess evolutionary and functional implications. This project develops and tests a novel theoretical and empirical paradigm by integrating a systems approach into animal communication research using Schizocosa wolf spiders. North American Schizocosa include 23 species that vary in their use of vibratory and visual courtship displays. Specific aims are (1) to assess the structure and dynamics of vibratory and visual courtship signals of each species in different environments; (2) to generate a robust phylogeny; and (3) to use phylogenetic comparative methods to test (i) the hypothesis that degeneracy facilitates robustness across changing conditions and (ii) whether degeneracy facilitates (or constrains) elaboration and signal divergence. The simultaneous measures of vibratory and visual signals across contexts combined with a robust phylogeny will enable unparalleled opportunities for evolutionary analyses of complexity. This research will facilitate an integrative and comprehensive understanding of the evolution, diversification, and maintenance of complex animal communication and provide a roadmap for similar studies across distinct taxa and signaling systems.