CAREER: Evaluating the relationship between functional diversity and information flow in multi-species bird flocks

Information about predators is a primary driver in the development of animal signals communicating danger. Given that many species are social and share potential predators, many of these signals are shared amongst species that occur in multi-species groups. But do all species provide equally valuable information to others in their social community or are many species redundant in detecting and alerting others to danger? Does this make certain species in groups more important in providing information than others? This project aims to look at the underlying characteristics of species in different types of muti-species flocks to understand the underlying drivers of how animal communication is propagated and used across different types of groups. Given the ubiquity of different types of bird flocks across terrestrial ecosystems, this project will investigate the role of information in defining species interactions that maintain diverse groups. This project will also evaluate how information use may be an emergent property that underlies the cohesion of social groups. The conservation and management of ecosystems requires the identification of the roles that different species play and by collecting data and modelling the flow of information through groups, this project aims to identify the key role players that are central to these terrestrial ecosystems. Broader impacts include educational advancements, student training, and mentoring of community college students through research experiences. The proposed research addresses a central question about the diversification of vigilance against predators across social systems and the consequences for who uses such information within a community. How does variation in functional traits such as body size and foraging ecology influence the roles of anti-predator vigilance among multi-species groups? How does variation in vigilance and the detection of information translate into widespread use of information across other members of a group? Direct tests of the relative importance of different mechanisms in providing information transfer as a function of variation in species and functional diversity has been little explored theoretically or through comparative experimental approaches. This project will develop a model and then parameterize the model using data from a large-scale experimental evaluation of the relationship between species functional diversity and information transfer across multiple comparative social groups. The product will leverage the ubiquity of multi- species bird flocks (MSFs), found in nearly every terrestrial forested ecosystem , an ideal model system to conduct large-scale tests to understand the relationship between species diversity and information transfer across biological communities under natural conditions in the wild. 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. NSF Award ID: 2542565 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT,01003031DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Ari Martinez | Institution: University of California-Santa Cruz, SANTA CRUZ, CA | Award Amount: $894,239 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2542565 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2542565.html