Fear and Cognition in a Changing World

一个动物的成功取决于它做三件基本事情的能力：觅食、避免被吃掉和成功繁殖。认不出捕食者往往是致命的，但被捕食的动物不能一直为了躲避捕食者而放弃觅食和繁殖。因此，动物如何识别和避免捕食风险，同时仍然成功的问题，是生物学的一个中心问题，也是我长期研究计划的很大一部分。我试图运用这些知识来理解人类对生态系统的干扰如何影响猎物风险评估，并最终影响猎物在野外的生存。作为一名认知生态学家，我专注于理解动物如何通过空间和时间处理风险波动，以及信息的确定性如何影响它们对捕食者的反应。大部分的工作涉及学习和记忆与捕食者有关的信息。在这项资助中，我将利用我在认知生态学方面的优势来解决几个紧迫的全球环境问题。第一个目标是了解变化的海洋化学（称为海洋酸化）和全球温度的增加如何相互作用，影响猎物风险评估和珊瑚礁鱼类的生存。根据我以前的研究，我知道有些鱼类比其他鱼类更容易受到海洋酸化的影响。这项工作将测试这些差异是否随着温度的升高而被夸大。被捕食鱼类的认知能力受损有可能从根本上改变招募模式，对渔业和珊瑚礁群落结构都有影响。第二个目标是了解人为噪音如何影响鱼类的繁殖、生长和学习。我们的世界变得越来越嘈杂，这种噪音可能对鱼类的生态和认知产生深远的影响。我将测试船的噪音是否会影响鱼的繁殖能力和识别捕食者的能力。由于无法识别捕食者，低招募率和高死亡率的后果可能对种群规模产生重大影响。我还将测试噪音是否是在水产养殖环境中限制鱼类生长的压力的主要原因。我的工作确实有潜力帮助加拿大水产养殖业通过设计最小化声应力的水箱来增加鱼的产量。我工作的第三个目标是全面了解压力对鱼类和两栖动物学习和记忆的影响。某些压力源可能会增加对捕食者的记忆，而其他压力源可能会影响这种能力。了解不同压力源（温度、水期变化）的影响，对于预测环境变化的生态影响尤为重要。我工作的最终目标是了解全球变化（紫外线辐射水平，气候变暖和水化学变化）如何影响猎物如何获得有关其感知风险水平的信息。许多动物严重依赖化学物质作为评估捕食风险的信息来源，但这些信息来源的时间方面可能会随着环境的迅速变化而受到损害。本基金将资助培养4名博士生、1名硕士生及数名本科生。考虑到我所确定的每一个目标都将认知生态学的前沿研究与现实生活中的环境问题结合起来，接受这项资助的学生将成为能够真正影响未来研究人员和政策制定者的科学家。

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.