Rising temperatures are a global challenge to organisms across the tree of life. Emerging research suggests that high temperatures can affect behaviors critical to reproduction and survival, such as choosing a mate and foraging, and that these effects occur at temperatures well below those that cause death. The core aim of this study is to generate understanding of how such behaviors are affected by elevated temperatures. The study combines mechanistic and functional approaches to provide new insights into individual-level variation in behavioral performance in heat using zebra finches as the study organism. As an arid-zone bird, zebra finches are a sentinel species for behavioral responses to the ever-increasing threat of heat. The core research aim will also be woven into inter-related educational and outreach activities. The centerpiece of these efforts is a new collaboration between Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and outreach groups at the University of Tennessee to develop, implement and assess new K12 curricular materials at the intersection of behavioral and thermal ecology, in the process supporting K12 classrooms and a STEM teacher pipeline in the economically disadvantaged Appalachian region of East Tennessee.
The sub-lethal effects of acute thermal challenges on animal behavior are not well-studied, particularly for mating-related behaviors such as advertisement and mate choice. This gap in knowledge is especially marked for endotherms, which are capable of thermoregulation but nevertheless face increasingly common and increasingly severe heat exposure. There is an urgent need to identify the scope of these behavioral effects of heat and the key drivers of behavioral thermal tolerance. To meet this need, the proposed research uses controlled experiments with a well-studied avian species, zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), to address two aims: (1) experimentally generate behavioral thermal response curves, focused on male song and female preferences and (2) test how pre-exposure to heat alters behavioral performance under thermally challenging conditions. By addressing these aims, this research achieves the overall goal of identifying the mechanisms and consequences of heat exposure on behavior. Meeting the study's research objectives will build robust theory on functional, behavioral responses to the ever-increasing threat of heat. In doing so, this proposal will evaluate the critical role of behavior in one of today's most pressing global challenges. This work is co-funded by the Behavioral Systems Cluster and the Integrative Ecological Physiology Program, both in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
