NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Multimodal Animal Communication Ecology

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Public concern over continued and growing use of toxic pesticides has prompted regulatoryagencies to eliminate pesticides or restrict their use. This, in turn, has led to the resurgence of manypests, while others continue their assault on food, fibre and people, severelyaffecting our health and natural resource-based economy. Improved pest control methods and alternatives to chemical pesticides are urgentlyneeded. The renewal proposal of the Chair is about some of those alternatives: multimodal foraging cues or communicationsignals that insects (and some vertebrates) utilize to communicate and locate resources. The emphasis is on thediscoveryof multi-modal and multi-component stimuli because increasing evidence indicates that animals integrate diverse types of information. The discoveryof novel visual, semiochemical, sonic, infrared, biomagnetic, and electrostatic foraging cues and communication signals, and synergistic effects between them, would allow the development of more effective baits or repellents, and new tactics for target-specific pest control. The third Chair term will expand the research program to include not onlypests but also pets. Dogs are man's best friend but we know surprisinglylittle about their communication, and all too often confine them under "unfriendly" conditions. The proposed research on canine bi-modal communication signals and prey-related forging cues is expected to enrich the dogs' inanimate environment and to counteract the effects of behavioural deprivation. This research will also provide impetus for similar studies on other domestic animals.