Fear and Cognition in a Changing World

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。未能识别捕食者往往是致命的，但被捕食的动物不能放弃觅食和繁殖，以一直躲避捕食者。因此，动物如何在仍然成功的情况下识别和避免捕食风险的问题，是生物学中的一个中心问题，也是我长期研究计划的一大部分。我试图应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，我专注于了解动物如何应对风险在空间和时间上的波动，以及信息的确定性如何影响它们对捕食者的反应。这项工作的大部分涉及到对捕食者相关信息的学习和记忆。在这笔赠款中，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。第一个目标是了解不断变化的海洋化学物质(称为海洋酸化)和全球气温上升如何相互作用，影响被捕食者的风险评估和珊瑚礁鱼类的生存。根据我以前的研究，我知道一些鱼类比其他物种更容易受到海洋酸化的影响。这项研究将测试这些差异是否会随着温度的升高而被夸大。捕食性鱼类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声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，这种噪音可能会对鱼类的生态和认知产生深远的影响。我将测试船只噪音是否会损害鱼类的繁殖产出和了解捕食者的能力。由于无法识别捕食者，导致较低的招募和较高的死亡率，这可能会对种群数量产生重大影响。我还将测试噪音是否是限制水产养殖环境中鱼类生长的压力的主要原因。我的工作具有真正的潜力，通过设计将声应力降至最低的水箱来帮助加拿大水产养殖业提高鱼类产量。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强捕食者的记忆力，而其他压力源可能会影响这种能力。了解不同应激源(温度、水期变化)的影响对于预测环境变化的生态影响特别相关。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)如何影响被捕食的动物如何获得有关其感知的风险水平的信息。许多动物严重依赖化学品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快速变化而受到损害。这笔助学金将帮助培养4名博士生、1名硕士研究生和几名本科生。鉴于我确定的每个目标都将认知生态学的尖端研究与现实生活中的环境问题结合在一起，获得这笔资助的学生将是真正能够作为未来的研究人员和政策制定者产生影响的科学家。

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.