Conspicuousness and Concealment: The Visual Ecology of Signaling and Camouflage

University Of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary: Conspicuousness and Concealment: The Visual Ecology of Signaling and Camouflage All visual tasks that animals perform take place in natural scenes. Consequently, the visual systems of animals are adapted for efficient (often nearly optimal) analysis of the scenes they view in natural circumstances. Animals are rarely concerned with general scene properties, however. Rather, most objects of visual interest are other animals or plant food items such as fruits or flowers. Sometimes the visual object is decorated to become a strong signal. Other times, it may conceal itself using patterns that are confused with its natural background - it is camouflaged. Systems of signaling and camouflage must contend with both vision of other animals and properties of the background. Furthermore, neither the background nor the organism has a constant appearance because of continuous variations in the patterns of illumination falling upon them. These changing conditions strongly influence the visual appearances of scenes and signals. This project considers the interrelationships among illuminants, scenes, signals, and animal vision. Research will concentrate on marine systems that offer excellent preliminary understanding of vision, color, and behavioral context: coral reef fishes, mantis shrimps, and cuttlefish. The primary goals are to learn how colors (i.e. spectral reflectances) and patterns of animals are adapted for enhanced conspicuousness or concealment, and how visual systems of animals are specialized to detect signals and to break camouflage. The power of this approach is that it compares a diverse selection of animals, all of which must form and recognize biological signals in shallow, clear marine waters. The research will be a pioneering effort to learn how systems of vision, signaling, and camouflage operate in extremely colorful (or well camouflaged) marine species in the specific contexts of their natural illuminants and backgrounds. The proposed research will contribute significantly to the fields of sensory biology, visual ecology, and animal behavior. It will similarly be of special interest to engineers and scientists working in remote sensing, machine vision, and artificial systems of object detection (including camouflaged objects). It will contribute to the training of graduate students and enhance the research experiences of undergraduates working in the P.I.s laboratory, including women and minority students. (who are already involved with similar research in this laboratory). Last - and far from least - the project holds promise for stimulating scientific interest in the general public and all those interested in animal vision, color, and crypsis.