Sensory Ecology, Behaviour, and Evolution

This is the first modern textbook of sensory ecology in two decades, one of the most popular and rapidly growing subjects in biology. The topic deals with how animals capture (and send) information from their environment, and the sensory systems involved. It investigates the type of information that is gathered by animals, how it is used in a range of behaviours, and the evolution of such traits. Sensory ecology deals with both mechanistic questions (e.g. how sensory receptors capture information from the environment, and how the physical attributes of the environment affect information transmission) and functional questions (e.g. the adaptive significance of the information used by the animal to make a decision). Sensory ecology covers the full range of sensory systems and types of sensory information (sound, visual, chemical, magnetic, electric etc.). The latest research has dealt more explicitly with how sensory systems may actually drive evolutionary change, including the formation of new species. This book provides an introduction to the key ideas, theories, and examples, describes how sensory systems work, and explores the links between the senses, animal signals, behaviour, and evolution.