7th Distinguished Water Seminar
Dr. Doug Chivers - Cognitive Ecology of Fear in a Changing World
The 7th Distinguished Water Seminar sponsored by the Institute was held on February 28, 2018. The featured speaker was Dr. Doug Chivers. Dr. Chivers is a Distinguished Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Saskatchewan, where he has worked since 1999. He teaches courses in Ichthyology and Animal Behavior and he has supervised numerous graduate students and postdocs. He and his students and collaborators conduct basic and applied research on the behavioral ecology of fishes including how anthropogenic disturbance influences anti-predator behavior of fishes in the wild. He has published over 240 papers in high impact journals, which have been cited over 13,000 times. Early in his career he was awarded a prestigious New Investigator Career Award by the Animal Behaviour Society. In 2016 he was as an Elected Fellow of the Animal Behaviour Society.
Abstract:
Due to the unforgiving nature of predation, prey animals have evolved an astonishing array of antipredator responses that act to thwart would-be predators. However, various anthropogenic stressors compromise prey risk assessment systems. The talk will explore how ocean acidification, rising sea temperatures, and coral degradation alter prey behaviour and ultimately predation dynamics in coral reef systems.