Ecology of Sensing

by Barth, Friedrich G.; Schmid, Axel

• ISBN13: 9783540669012
• ISBN10: 3540669019
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Sense organs serve as a kind of biological interface between the environment and the organism. Therefore, the relationship between sensory systems and ecology is very close and its knowledge of fundamental importance for an understanding of animal behavior. The sixteen chapters of this book exemplify the diversity of the constraints and opportunities associated with the sensation of stimuli representing different forms of energy. The book stresses the events taking place in the sensory periphery where the animal is exposed to and gets in touch with its natural habitat and acquires the information needed to organize its interaction with its environment. Ecology of Sensing brings together the leading experts in the field.

Table of Contents

General Aspects
Physical Constraints in Sensory Ecology	1	(18)
David B. Dusenbery
Why Sensory Ecology Needs to Become More Evolutionary - Insect Color Vision as a Case in Point	19	(20)
Lars Chittka
Adriana Briscoe
Sound and Hearing
Impedance Matching in Sound Production and Hearing: a Comparative Study	39	(20)
Henry C. Bennet-Clark
Ecological Constraints for Sound Communication: from Grasshoppers to Elephants	59	(20)
Heiner Romer
The Ecology of Avian Acoustical Signals	79	(26)
Hans Winkler
Medium Flow and Vibrations
The Motion-Sensing Hairs of Arthropods: Using Physics to Understand Sensory Ecology and Adaptive Evolution	105	(22)
Joseph A.C. Humphrey
Friedrich G. Barth
Karl Voss
Vibration Communication in Vertebrates	127	(22)
Peter M. Narins
Lateral Line Research: the Importance of Using Natural Stimuli in Studies of Sensory Systems	149	(20)
Horst Bleckmann
Joachim Mogdans
Guido Dehnhardt
Light and Vision
The Metabolic Cost of Information - a Fundamental Factor in Visual Ecology	169	(18)
Simon Laughlin
The Design of Compound Eyes and the Illumination of Natural Habitats	187	(28)
Eric Warrant
The Ecology of Teleost Fish Visual Pigments: a Good Example of Sensory Adaptation to the Environment?	215	(22)
Ron Douglas
Odors and Chemoreception
Selectivity in Chemical Communication Systems of Arthropods	237	(16)
Stefan Schulz
Sensory Ecology of Arthropods Utilizing Plant Infochemicals	253	(18)
Joop J.A. Van Loon
Marcel Dicke
Hygro- and Thermoreception
Problems in Hygro- and Thermoreception	271	(18)
Harald Tichy
Ewald Gingl
Magnetic Field and Electroreception
The Geomagnetic Field and Its Role in Directional Orientation	289	(24)
Wolfgang Wiltschko
Roswita Wiltschko
Electric Fields and Electroreception: How Electrosensory Fish Perceive Their Environment	313	(18)
Gerhard von der Emde
Index	331