Thermal Landscapes and Animal Communication: Understanding the Role of Temperature in Female Spider Mate Choice

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Temperature is an important determinant of existence for "cold-blooded" animals such as reptiles, frogs, insects and spiders which cannot regulate their own temperature. These animals face daily, seasonal, and annual fluctuations in temperature which will affect their ability to survive and find mates. Communication between males and females is especially challenging in this light. Successful communication requires coordination between them, yet male and female behavior may change independently with the surrounding temperature. Because communication is critical to the lives of most animals, understanding the effects of temperature on communication is necessary to understand animals in natural environments. Using a combination of laboratory and field studies, Dr. Elias' project will evaluate how temperature in natural environments changes, investigate how temperature affects different aspects of communication in "cold blooded" spiders, and experimentally test how predicted shifts in temperature will affect species interactions. Dr. Elias' project joins two existing fields of study, thermal physiology and animal communication, to investigate a basic yet under studied phenomenon common to most animals. This project will also serve to predict potential impacts of changing environmental conditions on animal communication. Dr. Elias will use his research to raise awareness on the utility of basic research using a multimedia website, collaborations with artists, and various social media outlets. In addition, Dr. Elias will design video games aimed at educating the public in aspects related to animal communication and behavioral theory. There has recently been a shift in mate choice research towards approaches integrating environmental heterogeneity. One aspect of environmental heterogeneity that has been relatively ignored is thermal heterogeneity. This is particularly interesting in the context of mating as temperature is known to affect multiple aspects of these behaviors. The goal of Dr. Elias' project is to integrate studies of thermal ecology with mating behavior to understand patterns of selection in the field and predict impacts of environmental change. To describe the ecological context, Dr. Elias will first quantify thermal environments, species distributions, and make observations on species across thermal habitats. Secondly, Dr. Elias will perform experiments to calculate thermal performance curves for species in different thermal environments. Using these data, Dr. Elias will test the hypothesis that thermal tolerances shape community structure and perform mate choice studies across a range of temperatures. This work will be the first to examine how communication dynamics may change as a result of environmental change. Understanding selection landscapes is a key goal in behavioral ecology, and Dr. Elias will be able to address the role of temperature and temperature variation in shaping selection. Finally, Dr. Elias will investigate the role of temperature on species hybridization which has the potential to weaken species boundaries and hasten extinction. This work will be one of the first to propose and test this potential consequence of environmental change and as such be important in plans to mitigate its effects.