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RESEARCH

Complex interspecific acoustic information networks

 

In the darkness of every night, the large diversity of echolocating bats, eared moths, singing bushcrickets and many others form complex interspecific acoustic information networks.

I investigate information use, animal behaviour and organismal interactions in complex natural settings on multiple levels from the informational input, to its neuronal and cognitive processing and to its adaptive functions (see the figure above).

My research studies how animals obtain and process sensory information, how they adjust their actions in response to changing information, and how evolution has shaped sensory-motor strategies to match environmental conditions and ecological needs. I pursue these questions in the fitness-relevant context of predator-prey interactions, using echolocating bats and eared insects as model systems for auditory information processing.

With my team members, I apply an integrative and comparative approach that combines state-of-the-art technology including acoustic virtual realities, 3D-flight tracking and biologging for behavioural experiments in controlled lab and natural field conditions with theoretical modelling and neurophysiological experiments.

In my long-term vision, we will see the world from the animal’s perspective – and understand the functional and ecological principles of its sensory-behavioural strategies: how and why they work the way they work.

I investigate information use, behavioural decisions and organismal interactions in ecologically relevant contexts, using echolocating bats and eared insects (moths and bushcrickets) as model systems. These taxa strongly rely on auditory information for communication and environmentalal perception, and functionally, ecologically and evolutionary interact with one another as predator and prey based on auditory information:

  • In individuals, I investigate the acquisition of auditory information to elucidate the sensory strategies, behavioural algorithms and ecological drivers of sound-based sensing in the lab (J Exp Biol 2018, J Exp Biol 2021) and field (Scie Adv 2021). By comparing across sensory systems (iScience 2019) and species (Curr Biol 2018, Func Ecol 2019), I address sensory-system- and species-specific mechanistic differences and ecological effects.

  • Bats and eared insect interact as predators and prey. In eared moths, I investigate the prey’s adaptive traits selected by bat predation, from neuronal processing (J Exp Biol 2013, J Theor Biol 2020) to anti-predator behaviour (Func Ecol 2019), as well as the predator’s counter-measure (Curr Biol 2010, Func Ecol 2018) and its evolution. Likewise, in bushcrickets, whose courtship song not only attracts mates but also predators, I investigate the adaptive decision-making strategies to trade-off reproduction and survival.

  • Bats are highly social and vocal. Their vocalisations support complex, dynamic and three-dimensional interspecific communication networks that are virtually unexplored and both beneficial (intra- and interspecific information transfer: Curr Biol 2018, J Anim Ecol 2019) and potentially costly (interference and jamming: PNAS 2019). Using modelling and field experiments with flying groups of bats, I quantify the perceived sensory scene and study the behavioural rules, inter-individual interactions and collective movements.

  • Intersecting all my research topics is another question: how does sensory processing deal with variation and change? Sensory processing naturally copes with huge variation in physical input and dynamic changes of the environment, which is recently further challenged by anthropogenic changes (light: Ecol Evol 2021Global Ecol Cons 2020; noise: Scie Rep 2015, PeerJ 2020; warming: J Roy Soc Interface 2014). Throughout my work, I investigate sensory-behavioural adaptations to cope with variation and change, ranging from fast task-dependent adjustments, over unpredictable organismic interactions to slow anthropogenic change.

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