PhD Proposal Defense: Integrative Biology by Haleigh Nogueira
CCB-340
Michael Sheriff
5089998208
msheriff@umassd.edu
Advisor:
Dr. Michael Sheriff
Committee Members:
- Dr. Sarah Donelan (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth)
- Dr. Mark Silby (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth)
- Dr. John Buck (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth)
- Dr. John Orrock (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Abstract:
Noise pollution is a widespread environmental stressor that introduces anthropogenic disturbance to animals’ acoustic environment. Traffic noise is one of the most spatially extensive sources of noise pollution, with traffic on US roads nearly tripling in the last few decades. This noise has the potential to disrupt wildlife by interfering with their ability to perceive and interpret information in their environment, masking important acoustic cues - such as the calls of predators. Such disruptions may alter how prey respond to the risk of predation, reshaping predator-prey interactions and having cascading consequences to population and community dynamics. While previous research has explored the direct effects of noise on behavior and physiology, there is less known regarding how chronic noise exposure influences prey response to predation risk in free-living animal populations. In my PhD, I will test the hypothesis that chronic exposure to traffic noise alters prey risk-responses in free-living small mammals, Peromyscus leucopus. To test this hypothesis, I will conduct an experimental study near a major interstate and a common-garden experiment using predator calls and traffic noise.