ASET Colloquium

Forest acoustics: Communication in the cacophony

by Prof. Rohini Balakrishnan (Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc)

Friday, August 4, 2017 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at AG-66.
Description
Abstract

Many animal groups such as crickets, frogs and birds use long-distance acoustic signals for mate attraction. The senders are typically males and the ‘intended’ receivers are females of the same species. Each species has a unique acoustic signal and females use its spectral and temporal properties to recognize and locate calling males of their species. In tropical rainforests, where large numbers of species may call together, acoustic masking interference is believed to pose a serious problem for communication. Over the past 15 years, my research group has worked on an assemblage of acoustically communicating species of crickets in the tropical evergreen forests of Kudremukh National Park. We have examined sender and receiver strategies for communication in the complex, noisy acoustic environment of the dusk chorus.

An understanding of senders, signals and receivers should ultimately provide insights, both into the functioning of a natural acoustic communication network and the evolutionary forces that do, or do not, shape it.

About the Speaker:

Rohini Balakrishnan received her Ph.D. in Biology (Neurogenetics) in 1991 from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR, then affiliated to the University of Bombay). She then carried out postdoctoral research in bioacoustics at McGill University, Montreal, Canada from 1993-1996, followed by a second postdoc at the University of Erlangen, Germany (1996-1998). She joined IISc in 1998, where she is currently Professor and Chair of the Centre for Ecological Sciences. Her current research is on acoustic communication in animals, focusing on crickets as a study system, where she examines the physiology and ecology of acoustic signal production and reception. She has about 50 publications, several in leading international journals in the areas of physiology and ecology. She has pioneered bioacoustics research in India and also collaborates with electrical and mechanical engineers in interdisciplinary projects at the interface of biology and engineering.

Research interests
Animal Behaviour and Bioacoustics: Acoustic communication networks, Sensory ecology of mate-finding and mate choice, Predator-prey interactions, Systematics and phylogenetics: Species delimitation and identification, Signal function and evolution, Acoustic biodiversity monitoring, Soundscapes.
Material:
Organised by Dr. Satyanarayana Bheesette
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