NSF Award
2420214
The signals that animals use to communicate with each other are critical to life, mediating a wide range of social interactions that determine whether individuals live or die, find mates, and compete for opportunities to breed. One of the most spectacular features of animal signals is that they are remarkably diverse, with each species appearing to evolve its own unique set of ornaments and displays. Understanding how these different signals evolve and diversify is a longstanding goal of organismal biology, yet this topic remains mysterious in several ways. We know, for example, very little about how the brain influences the process of social signal evolution. In this IRES project, undergraduate students from around the U.S. will be trained to conduct research that addresses this major knowledge gap. Student participants work with a group of international PIs, who together use integrative approaches to study the evolution and control of animal communication behavior. Study locations include Austria and India, where participants work for a 10-week period during the summer. Research activities center around both laboratory and field experiments that are performed in groups and through independent research projects. Their experience abroad is bookended by pre- and post-travel training to help prepare the participants with appropriate technical and cultural acumen to successfully complete their projects. Students also receive professional development throughout the entire experience, and they will work throughout the summer to help construct conservation exhibits for the local zoo in Vienna, Austria. In this way, the program focuses not only on building research and outreach skills, but also cultivating international proficiency and awareness. Our program fulfills the goals of the IRES program by producing college graduates who are ready to join the global STEM workforce in the 21st century.<br/><br/>International collaboration is a critical part of ecology and evolutionary biology, driving major discoveries about the principles of life on Earth. Yet, undergraduate students from the U.S. often encounter hurdles that prevent them from engaging in such collaborative research. This is a problem because it means that our undergraduate population may be underprepared to join the modern STEM workforce, particularly in areas of ecology and evolution. The current research project aims to develop a program that addresses this problem by annually involving 6 undergraduate students from around the US and 1 graduate student in mentored research projects in both Austria and India. The program will last 10 weeks in the summer, and student participants will conduct work that explores how neural systems influence the evolution of elaborate visual displays in frogs. Students will work independently, as well as in large teams, to investigate: 1) how adaptive cognitive traits drive display evolution, and 2) how motor circuits in the spinal cord co-evolve with display diversification. All work will be done in the laboratory and field alongside mentors from the host countries. Thus, student participants are given the chance to not only address fundamental questions in animal communication, but to do so in an international context that helps prepare them for STEM careers in a global landscape.<br/><br/>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.
