Clinton Francis, California Polytechnic State University and MPIO: Ecological and socio-ecological dimensions of sensory pollution

Human activities are globally pervasive. Although applied ecology and conservation biology has typically focused on how changes in vegetation or land cover influence wild populations and communities, growing evidence suggests that changes in other ecological dimensions, such as the acoustic and lit environment, can have comparable or larger ecological consequences than land cover changes. In this talk, I will discuss my lab’s use of natural and manipulative field experiments, plus large-scale databases, to understand how changes to the acoustic environment and light regimes can influence behavior, reproduction, distributions and ecological interactions. I will focus primarily on birds, but highlight key examples of how changes in sensory environments are highly relevant to human health and wellbeing.