Collaborative Research: A Comparative Systems Approach to Complex Animal Signaling

许多动物使用一种以上的感官来相互交流，例如，将声音与颜色或运动结合起来。了解动物信号为何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对感官如何工作，注意力和学习如何改变感知以及不断变化的环境如何影响沟通（等等）的知识。在这个项目中，来自内布拉斯加大学林肯分校和奥本大学的科学家们使用系统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。该团队利用基因组学重建了超过23个物种的进化历史。对于每个物种，他们还详细描述了通信系统以及它如何随环境条件而变化。然后，他们测试有关系统属性的假设，如鲁棒性和灵活性/可进化性。该项目将促进我们对复杂动物信号的理解，并测试长期存在的关于系统结构和功能的工程学和基因组学理论。该项目涉及对本科生和研究生的培训。研究结果还将被纳入一个科学展览，将提供给公众在内布拉斯加州和亚拉巴马的自然历史博物馆。尽管赞赏的患病率和复杂的信号在动物通信的重要性，信号复杂性的进化分析的进展一直受到限制，缺乏假说和工具，可以比较信号系统的类群和评估进化和功能的影响。本计画发展并测试一种新的理论与实证范例，将系统方法整合到使用裂殖狼蛛的动物沟通研究中。北美裂殖吸虫包括23种，它们在使用振动和视觉求偶展示方面各不相同。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力学;（2）生成一个强大的进化;（3）使用系统发育比较方法来测试（i）简并性促进变化条件下的鲁棒性的假设和（ii）简并性是否促进（或限制）阐述和信号发散。同时测量振动和视觉信号的背景下结合一个强大的进化，将使无与伦比的机会，进化分析的复杂性。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理解，并为不同分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.