Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

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 cannot forgo foraging and reproduction all of the time. Hence, the question of how animals recognize and avoid being eaten is a central issue in biology and constitutes a large part of my long-term research program. As a cognitive ecologist, I focus on understanding how animals deal with fluctuations in risk over minutes to generations and how the certainty of information influences how they respond to predators. Much of this work involves learning and memory of predator-related information. Our recent empirical work, combined with some mathematical modelling has led to the realization that recognizing safety, be it in the form of recognition of non-predators or safe places, is likely much more important to prey than recognizing risk. This fundamentally changes the way ecologists view animal decision making. Accordingly, my first objective is to conduct pioneering work on crayfish space use patterns (the Landscape of Safety) and learning through the emerging lens of safety recognition. Does early life experience in safe environments bias the ability of animals to learn to recognize both predators and non-predators? In this grant, I will also use my strength in cognitive ecology to address several pressing global environmental issues. We will examine the long-term consequences of exposure to Selenium and Bisphenol S (BPS). Selenium is an essential metaloid in vertebrates but is highly toxic at elevated levels. BPS has been touted as a safe alternative to Bispenol A (BPA) for use in various plastics, but this assertion is highly suspect. We have previously shown that environmentally relevant concentrations of both Se and BPS impair normal fish escape behaviour, interferes with learning and social behaviour and is associated with neurotransmitter dysfunction. Our work will finalize a decade long project examining whether these pollutants cause significant cognitive and biochemical effects over multiple generations when fish are raised in clean water. Likewise, we will examine multigenerational effects of exposure to common antidepressants, venlafaxine and citalopram, on antipredator plasticity, including antipredator behaviour, shell characteristics (shell thickness, shape and colour) and life history traits (age at maturity, clutch size, and average egg size) in common pond snails. Afterwards, we will assess oxidative stress levels as well as the epigenetic patterns underlying phenotypic changes. This grant will facilitate the training of 1 PDF, 4 PhD students, along with 19 undergraduate students. Combining cutting edge research in cognitive ecology with real life environmental issues means that the students and PDF trained with this grant will be scientists that are poised to make an impact as researchers and policy makers of the future.