Meeting Abstract
We live in a changing world. Whether natural or exacerbated by human-induced factors, our climate is in a state of constant fluctuation. Understanding how animals respond to climate change at a cognitive level might reveal important and unknown aspects of how selection works in harsh or variable environments and gives us a more complete picture of the future of animal populations in our changing world. The goal of our symposium is to integrate physiological mechanism, behavioral and psychological responses, and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of those responses to understand the cognitive strategies that animals may use to cope with a rapidly changing world. Traditionally, strictly physiological approaches have been used to consider how animals will respond to environmental perturbation and (at a large scale) global climate change. However, we know that behavioral plasticity can facilitate a rapid and efficient response to perturbation and may be an equally relevant measure of a species capacity to handle change. By taking an integrative approach to cognition, we will be better able to understand which aspects of cognition might be most relevant for the response to environmental change and understand more fully the processes involved in its selection. Thus, we will be better able to predict the effect of large-scale climate change on a wider variety of species.
