Abstract:
How is information important to community assembly and conservation? In the first part of the talk, I will go back to my PhD research to describe behavioral interactions in mixed-species bird flocks of Sri Lanka, including alarm calling and vocal mimicry, and argue that information can be central to mutualism and manipulation in communities. Next, we will review synthetic work across taxa and habitats that demonstrates that information sources are keystone species for communities and should be targeted in conservation plans. Finally, we will look specifically at the question of whether the diversity of information sources can affect the quantity and quality of cumulative information in the community. I will highlight on-going work on the predation-related vocalizations of birds (mobbing and alarm calls), and how these vary over island-size and latitudinal gradients. The objective is to go behind a description of the species diversity-information relationship, to understand the underlying mechanisms, revealing how information flow is an ecosystem function regulated by biodiversity and justifying conservation.
Speaker: Dr. Eben Goodale
Affiliation: Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Time: 4:30 PM, Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Venue: Offline: The Conference Hall in Xishuangbanna Headquarter
Online: Tencent Meeting ID：541 342 998
