Objective Sensory systems enable animals to perceive their worlds and make adaptive decisions for survival. However, finding out about the world outside is energetically expensive: it involves complex sensory systems to collect the information, and dedicated neural systems to process it. Therefore, the benefits of acquiring information need to be balanced against the costs of receiving and processing it. Consequently, evolution has equipped animals with sensory systems that fit their lifestyle and environment, to give them the information they need to enhance their survival and reproduction. However, most, if not all, animals have multiple sensory systems: how should investment in different sensory systems be balanced, and what factors affect the trade-off between investment in different sensory modalities? When environmental constraints limit the usefulness of specific sensory modalities (e.g. living in the dark), shifts in investment in different sensory modalities can occur. What is not known is how trade-offs occur between sensory modalities that are still useful to an animal, but perhaps their relative importance changes according to lifestyle or environmental factors. This project aims to investigate the trade-off that occurs in diurnal species between the visual and olfactory systems, and explain why it occurs. I will use insects as a model system, since their neural structures, ecologies and sensory systems are well studied, and can be easily measured. I will measure the relative size of olfactory and visual systems within insect species, and test if predatory species or those that fly (i.e. species that need to rapidly assess changes in their environment) invest more in vision than olfaction. I will also test if the sizes of neural structures associated with each modality correlate with sensory ability. The project will provide the first concrete evidence that sensory capabilities are traded-off against one another, and identify the reasons why. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyevolutionary ecologynatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomology Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2015-EF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2015 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Net EU contribution € 195 454,80 Address KINGS GATE NE1 7RU Newcastle Upon Tyne United Kingdom See on map Region North East (England) Northumberland and Tyne and Wear Tyneside Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 195 454,80
