Daniel T Blumstein - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Quantifying behavior is a fundamental problem in many academic disciplines and for a variety of theoretical problems ranging from behavioral ecology and ethology through developmental psychobiology and neurophysiology to veterinary medicine. Researchers often use computer programs called 'event recorders' to assist in the quantitative study of behavior. Existing programs only run on one type of computer (i.e., they only work in DOS, Windows or Macintosh operating systems), typically have constraints that interfere with understanding the structure of behavior, and may cost thousands of dollars per copy. We have developed a working prototype of an event recorder and data analysis program written in the Java TM computer language that operates on any modern microcomputer. We have included novel algorithms that permit users to score behavior once and analyze the resulting data record many times to obtain a deeper understanding of the structure of behavior. The prototype is designed to work in concert with existing spreadsheet and graphics programs. We aim to complete development by: updating it so that it can run on the Java operating system of the future (Java 2); adding the ability to combine results files and measure observer reliability; adding sequential analysis algorithms; adding graphical output so that users will not have to use other programs to visualize behavior; developing an integrated event-recorder for Palm operating system PDAs so that users will be able to score behavior under field conditions and analyze it using JWatcher. We distribute JWatcher without charge to the research community and intend to continue doing so. Our goal is to provide a powerful tool for research and teaching for the biomedical community that facilitates the study of behavior without spending scarce research funds on commercial software. While we will continue to freely-distribute the software, on-going support and routine updates will be supported by the sales of a detailed users manual, which will include laboratory exercises suitable for teaching.

A grant has been awarded to Drs. Daniel T. Blumstein, Charles E. Taylor and Kung Yao at the University of California Los Angeles to host a workshop that will bring together current and potential users of bioacoustic sensor array technology with engineers and computer science experts to identify needs and current abilities, and to prioritize technology development and research questions.


The meeting will be held at the James Reserve, a University of California Field Station notable for the degree to which cutting edge sensor array technology has been deployed. The meeting will have a series of keynote talks and break-out groups where researchers from different fields will collaborate to develop a position paper.


The broader significance of this work is to facilitate the development of robust, easy-to-use acoustic sensor arrays with user interfaces appropriate for researchers in animal behavior and ecology, to excite promising students about the development and application of this technology, and to provide underrepresented engineering students a frontier intellectual and technical experience to encourage them to pursue advance study or to continue to the doctorate.

This award supports a collaborative effort between the PIs and investigators at the University of Arizona and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to design and develop instrumentation for wildlife biologists to inventory animals by detecting, recording, and analyzing their sounds. The system will also allow for field biologists to ask questions about the temporal and spatial dynamics of acoustic communication. Many species produce sounds, and by identifying and localizing them, we can census biodiversity and study the natural dynamics of communication. Typically, these will be vocal sounds, such as bird song, or mammal or frog calls, but in theory, the equipment and algorithms can be used for other sorts of sounds (such as the stridulations of cricket wings). To do so, we must build robust hardware and easy to use software that field biologists can and will use. While there has been the development of ?proof-of-concept? tools and algorithms for many of the components of a usable system, there is no reliable, robust, and easy-to-use system that will permit field biologists to easily census acoustic animals. To do so, a platform called VoxNet will be developed. VoxNet is an integrated software and hardware package which will be a quantum leap forward beyond existing technology in for main areas: software, near-real time event recognition, energy efficiency, and a much longer communication range.

VoxNet will be a new, highly integrated, deployable acoustic sensor node with a lower unit cost, and lower energy cost than any existing system. VoxNet will include a highly optimized system software and driver to reduce energy costs through duty cycling. In addition, new 2D/3D algorithms to localize the source of the sound will be developed. These new algorithms will run in near-real-time on a distributed network of VoxNet nodes, enabling users to detect and identify vocalizing animals while in the field. A powerful and easy-to-use software environment based on the WaveScope programming model and the XStream distributed stream processing system (technology partially developed under NSF support at MIT) will be developed. Finally, the system will be tested in the field to both census birds and identify individually alarm calling marmots.

The development of tools for field biologists to use will create new ways to census biodiversity, and ask here-to-for impossible or difficult-to-ask questions about the spatial and temporal dynamics of vocal displays. When deployed, we expect these tools to generate novel and important discoveries. The dissemination of these tools will enhance research productivity in behavior, ecology and evolutionary biology. And, these tools will create novel ways to census, conserve, and manage biodiversity. The process of developing these tools will create integrative educational opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students.

Tinkerbirds are tiny tropical African birds that sing very simple songs. Genetic variation is thought to parallel song variation among populations of birds that do not learn their songs culturally, such as tinkerbirds. The aim of this project is to examine the genetic basis of a pattern of divergence in song between populations of two related species, as well as divergence in body size and beak shape. Such divergence is predicted to occur in order to facilitate coexistence of two species that are so similar in ecology and behavior that individuals of each species could compete with each other as they would with individuals of their own species. If two species fail to recognize each other as different species, they could even mate with each other and produce infertile hybrids. The process of divergence in ecological or behavioral traits that facilitates recognition and coexistence of related species is known as character displacement. Analyses will also account for the possibility that song, body size, and beak shape are adapted to differences in the environment, or vary randomly over geographic distances.

While character displacement is a well-established theory in ecology and evolution, few examples have been found in nature. This study will provide the first unambiguous demonstration of character displacement in bird song, and provide support for it with parallel shifts in body size and beak shape. The project involves working with conservation organizations in Uganda and Cameroon, employing their staff as well as Ugandan university undergraduates as field assistants, thus helping the development of scientists in developing countries.

Abstract
0901056: Loren D. Hayes, The University of Louisiana at Monroe
0901045: Daniel T. Blumstein, UCLA

This U.S.-Chile collaborative award will support a workshop on intraspecific variation and social systems. The event will be held in August 2009 at the Universidad Católica de Chile. The workshop will be organized by Dr. Loren Hayes of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Dr. Daniel Blumstein of UCLA, and Dr. Rodrigo Vasquez and Dr. Luis Ebensperger from the Universidad Católica de Chile. The meeting will serve as a forum for researchers to discuss new ways of thinking about mechanisms that lead to instraspecific variation in animal social systems. The workshop will foster communication between an interdisciplinary group of experts in the fields of behavioral ecology, endocrinology, genetics, and neurobiology. Particular emphasis will be placed on the participation of graduate students and junior researchers.

A key objective of the workshop is to plan the development of a mechanistically-sound model of social variation, with an aim to predict the effect of intraspecific habitat variation on the expression of social group living and mating systems. Specifically this workshop will expand the scope of existing ecological models for social group formation and maintenance.

The purpose of this study is to understand how natural selection on various physiological, behavioral, and life history traits in a model organism, yellow-bellied marmots, varies over time in a rapidly changing environment. By following the fate of individually-marked marmots, this research will provide new insights on the limits of evolutionary responses to environmental change. This research will transform our views of potentially "good" and "bad" changes that are driven by the environment. These methods and results should be applicable to a variety of other species that are likely to initially do "better" but may ultimately do "worse" from earlier arrival of spring conditions.

The broader impacts of this project will include: (1) recruitment and training of graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups; (2) wide dissemination of research results to scientific audiences and the general public via scientific and popular articles and talks, and engagement with science journalists; (3) maintenance of Marmot Minutes (a blog), The Marmot Burrow (a website), and The Marmots of RMBL (a website); and (4) continuation of one of the world's longest-running studies that follows the fate of individually-marked mammals. This dataset has become an important window on the effects of climate change on a hibernating vertebrate, and a valuable data set that can be used to explore both population and evolutionary dynamics.

The purpose of this study is to understand how natural selection changes over time for a species experiencing a rapidly changing environment. This research builds on an extensive long-term (since 1962) data set of individually marked yellow-bellied marmots at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado. The project will measure changes in key physiological and behavioral traits of individual marmots, and determine their influence on reproduction and survival in this model organism. This work is important because it will provide new data and insights to better understand the limits of evolutionary responses to environmental change. The work will continue a long term record of changes in fitness (i.e., reproductive success and survival) for populations of the marmot inhabiting different elevations, and linking this to traits like body mass, aggression, and dominance behavior in these mammals. Continuation of this data provides a valuable window on the effects of climate change on a hibernating mammal, and a priceless data set that can be used to explore both population and evolutionary dynamics. Broader impacts of this project will include: recruitment and training of graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups; wide dissemination of research results to scientific audiences and the general public via scientific and popular articles and talks, and working with science journalists; and maintenance of a blog and website to provide public information on marmot biology and ecology.

This project will evaluate changes in the environment, in selection pressure, and in trait variance of marmot populations at both low and high elevation sites at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. The work will expand earlier analyses on body mass traits such as mass at emergence, rate of mass gain, and mass before hibernation. Analyses of changes in selection and in trait distributions will be based on the past 40 years and the next 2-3 years. The PI will focus analyses on behavioral and endocrine traits using 12-15 years of data, and use a combination of path analysis to test for causality and the multivariate animal model to decompose trait variance into its environmental and genetic components. By quantifying how selection on traits changes over time, how changes in reproductive success and survival affects traits, and how changes in these traits affect reproduction and survival, this research will integrate proximate and ultimate mechanisms and use novel approaches to study causal inference.