Noisy neighbours: human noise and acoustic animal communication

Brief Description: The natural world is a noisy place, and a lot of that noise comes from animals all communicating with each other for a variety of reasons. More recently, the noise humans make has been getting louder, making it harder and harder for animals that rely on acoustic communication to communicate. This talk will provide an overview of animal acoustic communication, how anthropogenic noise is impacting that communication, and a discussion on the ways in which noise is thought to have long-term effects on entire species communities and ecosystems.

Bio: Dr Nora Carlson is a postdoctoral researcher currently working in Francis Juanes’ lab at the University of Victoria, Canada. She is a behavioural ecologist whose research focuses on animal communication, predator-prey relationships, and the effects of noise on these processes and relationships. Her current research focuses on the effects of anthropogenic noise on fish behaviour and how that affects their availability as a prey resource to their avian predators.