CAREER: The Ecology of Information in Predator-prey Interactions: Testing Mechanisms by which Informed Prey Avoid their Predators in Space and Time

生物的最佳决策依赖于获得有关生态条件的信息(例如，捕食者的位置、未来配偶的质量)。信息越灵通的个人，就越能更好地将其行为与当前或预期的未来情况相匹配。这些调整反过来可能是生态相互作用的重要驱动因素或调节因素。因此，为了充分了解生态复杂性，生态学家必须了解生物体可用信息的来源(例如，过去的经验、新获得的信息)、信息如何改变生物体的行为，以及信息使用对其他生物体的后果。即将进行的研究将在繁殖鸣禽如何获得有关捕食风险的信息的背景下调查这些问题。它结合了对个别标记动物的长期观察数据、捕食者在时间和空间上的实验操作以及计算机模拟，以探索环境可预测性对信息使用的作用，从而探索对全球变化的可能反应。这项拟议的研究将通过麦克奈尔学者和霍华德·休斯研究员等项目促进针对代表性不足群体的本科生研究。它将制定一项新的倡议，通过反思和积极的研究经验向非理科专业的学生提供科学教育。这一倡议将在一门课程中进行，该课程旨在培养学生从事向非科学家传播自然科学的职业。通过拟议的教育评估，这一举措可能是量化反思和研究经验对学生通过写作有效传达科学本质的能力的作用的第一次尝试。

Optimal decision making by organisms relies upon the acquisition of information regarding relevant ecological conditions (e.g., location of predators, qualities of prospective mates). The better informed the individual, the better it can match its behavior to its present or anticipated future circumstances. These adjustments in turn may be important drivers or regulators of ecological interactions. Therefore, to fully grasp ecological complexity, ecologists must understand the sources of information available to organisms (e.g., past experiences, newly acquired information), how information changes an organism's behavior, and the consequences of information use for other organisms. The research to be performed will investigate these questions within the context of how breeding songbirds acquire information about predation risk. It combines long-term observational data on individually marked animals, experimental manipulation of predators in time and space, and computer simulations to explore the role of environmental predictability on information use and, hence, on possible responses to global change. The proposed research will facilitate undergraduate research that targets underrepresented groups through programs such as McNair Scholars and Howard Hughes Fellows. It will develop a new initiative to provide science education through reflection and active research experience to non-science majors. This initiative will occur within a curriculum designed to groom students for professions that communicate the science of the natural world to non-scientists. Through proposed education assessments, this initiative would represent perhaps the first attempt to quantify the role of reflection and research experience on students' abilities to effectively convey the nature of science through writing.