IESC Seminar Series - “Urban ecology: The impact of urban noise on avian communication” - Ç. Akçay

Institute of Environmental Sciences Seminar Series

“Urban ecology: The impact of urban noise on avian communication”

By Dr. Çağlar Akçay, Anglia Ruskin University

We cordially invite you to the online seminar “Urban ecology: The impact of urban noise on avian communication” by Dr. Çağlar Akçay, Anglia Ruskin University.

When: 25 April, Monday, 15:00-16:30.

Where: We will be sharing the Zoom link with the registrants a few days before the seminar via email. Please do not forget to register using the below link.

Registration link: https://bit.ly/IES_Seminar_Akcay

Contact: pinar.ertor@boun.edu.tr for any questions.

Abstract:

Urbanization, one of the major ways humans are altering Earth, comes with a lot of challenges for wildlife, including altered habitats, novel predators and environmental noise. The effect of noise on wildlife has been studied widely in the last two decades, particularly in birds, although our understanding of the impacts of noise on communication systems remains incomplete. In this talk I will give an overview about the major questions in how noise affects animal communication and talk about our studies on the effect of noise on the evolution of avian communication systems.

About Dr Çağlar Akçay:

Dr. Çağlar Akçay is a behavioural ecologist interested in animal communication and social cognition. Dr. Akçay is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. He was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Koç University, Istanbul from 2017-2022. He held postdoctoral positions at Virginia Tech, Cornell University and University of Washington between 2011 and 2017. His research interests are in the evolution and development of animal communications and how animals use social cognition to navigate social interactions. He primarily works with songbirds as model systems, carrying out field studies with wild songbirds living in a variety of habitats