Fear and Cognition in a Changing World

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The success of an animal depends on its ability to do three basic things: to forage, to avoid being eaten and to successfully reproduce. Failing to recognize a predator is often fatal, but prey animals cannot forgo foraging and reproduction to hide from predators all of the time. Hence, the question of how animals recognize and avoid predation risk while still being successful, is a central issue in biology and constitutes a large part of my long term research program. I seek to apply this knowledge to understand how human disturbance to ecosystems influences prey risk assessment and ultimately prey survival in the wild. As a cognitive ecologist, I focus on understanding how animals deal with fluctuations in risk through space and time and how the certainty of information influences how they respond to predators. Much of this work involves learning and memory of predator-related information. In this grant, I will use my strength in cognitive ecology to address several pressing global environmental issues. The first objective relates to understanding how changing ocean chemistry (referred to as ocean acidification) and an increase in global temperatures interact to affect prey risk assessment and survival of coral reef fishes. Based on my previous research I know that some species of fishes are more affected by ocean acidification than others. This work will test whether these difference are exaggerated with increased temperature. Impaired cognitive abilities of prey fishes have the potential to fundamentally change recruitment patterns, with implications for both fisheries and coral reef community structure. The second objective is aimed at understanding how anthropogenic noise influences reproduction, growth and learning in fishes. Our world is becoming much noisier, and this noise may have a profound effect on fish ecology and cognition. I will test whether boat noise impairs reproductive output and the ability of the fish to learn their predators. The consequence of lower recruitment and higher mortality, stemming from the inability to recognize predators, could have significant effects on population size. I will also test whether noise is a major cause of stress that limits fish growth in an aquaculture setting. My work has real potential to help the Canadian aquaculture industry increase fish production by designing tanks that minimize acoustic stress. The third objective of my work is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the effects of stress on learning and memory in fish and amphibians. Certain stressors may act to increase memory of predators while others may impinge on this ability. Knowledge of the effects of different stressors (temperature, changes in hydroperiod) is particularly relevant to predict the ecological effects of a changing environment. The final objective of my work is to understand how global change (levels of UV radiation, a warming climate and changing water chemistry) influences how prey animals gain information about their perceived level of risk. Many animals rely heavily on chemicals as a source of information to assess predation risk, but the temporal aspect of these information sources may be compromised with a rapidly changing environment. This grant will facilitate the training of 4 PhD students, 1 MSc student and several undergraduate students. Given that each of the objectives I have identified combines cutting edge research in cognitive ecology with real-life environmental issues, the students trained with this grant will be scientists that can truly make an impact as researchers and policy makers of the future.