The acoustic environment and parent-offspring communication in birds

动物使用一系列信号进行交流，从配偶之间的低声叫声到雄性求爱的精心展示。解释这种信号的结构和多样性一直是动物交流研究的中心问题。对成年动物的研究表明，声音信号的结构通常有助于通过环境传输信号，并改善接收者的接收能力。 幼小的动物也会发出声音信号，作为向父母索要食物的有力乞讨表演的一部分。这些信号的强度让进化生物学家感到困惑，因为它们似乎浪费了能量，让捕食者很明显地看到了幼崽。许多研究试图解释为什么这些乞讨信号看起来如此明显，但很少有人研究环境在解释它们的结构中可能扮演的角色。 我和我的学生研究鸟类的亲子交流，重点是了解明显的乞讨信号可能是如何进化的。在这个方案中，我们测试了这样一个想法，即通过巢环境进行有效发送和接收的选择解释了乞求信号的结构，特别是乞求呼叫。具体地说，我们研究了鸟巢的声学、来自鸟巢伴侣的声学竞争以及环境噪音如何共同影响幼鸟发出的信号类型。 了解动物如何交流对于理解它们社会行为的方方面面是至关重要的。父母和孩子之间的沟通特别重要，因为它影响到后代的生长和存活。我们的工作首次解决了有关环境如何影响这些重要信号的基本问题。它还研究了噪音如何影响亲子沟通，这对生活在城市地区或附近的动物来说是一个日益严重的问题，在城市地区，人为噪音正在增加。

Animals communicate using a range of signals, from whispered calls between mates to the elaborate displays of courting males. Explaining the structure and diversity of such signals has been a central problem in the study of animal communication. Studies on adult animals show that acoustic signals are often structured in ways that help transmit the signal through the environment and improve reception by receivers. Young animals also produce acoustic signals, as part of vigorous begging displays used to solicit food from parents. The intensity of these signals has puzzled evolutionary biologists because they appear to waste energy and make the young obvious to predators. Many studies have tried to explain why these begging signals appear so conspicuous, but few have examined the role the environment might play in explaining their structure. My students and I study parent-offspring communication in birds, with a focus on understanding how conspicuous begging signals may have evolved. In this proposal, we test the idea that selection for effective transmission and reception through the environment of the nest explains the structure of begging signals, particularly begging calls. Specifically, we examine how the acoustics of the nest, acoustic competition from nest mates and environmental noise together affect the types of signals given by young birds. Understanding how animals communicate is central to understanding all aspects of their social behaviour. Communication between parents and young is particularly important because it affects offspring growth and survival. Our work is the first to address fundamental questions about how the environment affects these important signals. It also examines how noise impacts parent-offspring communication, which is a growing problem for animals living in or near urban areas, where anthropogenic noise is increasing.