Speaker
Description
Information transmission among species is ubiquitous in natural ecosystems. Individuals receive sensory inputs and convert them into information by perceiving and analyzing cues in their surroundings. This inter-species information exchange and utilization is known as “information flow”, and regulates different kinds of species interactions, such as foraging and mating. However, with increased human activity, a variety of sensory pollutants (e.g. light, chemicals and vibration) are altering and even disrupting information flow and communication between species, but the mechanisms by which these pollutants affect ecological communities comprising species and their interactions remain unclear. To fill the gap, we developed a sensory information-constrained functional response (IFR) framework, which indicates the systematic variation of the functional responses’ types (i.e., the relationship between prey density and predators’ feeding rate) is attributable to limitations in sensory information transmission among species. By applying the IFR in the predator-prey model, we analyzed how environmental noise regulates the population dynamics, and how the predator’s sensory capability buffers sensory pollution effects. Our analyses provide a theoretical basis for understanding the mechanisms by which sensory information regulates the population dynamics, and also provide guidance for understanding the ecological community dynamics in the changing world.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|
