Details
The Jefferson Humanists’ monthly chapter meeting will have a presentation by Dr. Robin Tinghitella titled, “How urban noise impacts insects living in human-adjacent communities.”
Almost all organisms live in environments that have been altered to some degree by human activities. Expanding urbanization poses a significant threat to biodiversity and wildlife health, and alters ecosystem health and function. While urbanization drives many species away from human-impacted areas, it also affects those who remain.
Human generated noise is a ubiquitous global pollutant, and, because noise knows no boundaries, even animals living far from point sources are impacted. The negative effects of noise on human health are well-known. Noise causes physiological, neurological, and endocrinological problems, inducing stress related illness, hearing loss, cognitive impairment, and sleep disruption. There may be similarly negative consequences for human-adjacent natural communities because noise reduces animals’ ability to hear natural sounds, induces stress responses, interrupts foraging, vigilance, and parental care, and even increases mortality. Dr. Tinghitella lab work in this area focuses on how human-generated noise impacts insect survival and reproduction.
In this talk Dr. Tinghitella will highlight her recent work to understand how immediate and longer-term responses to noise impact cricket communication, mate location, courtship, development, lifespan, and ultimately the number of surviving offspring. Are all impacts of noise on animals negative? Or are animals likely to be able to adjust their behavior and other traits to accommodate living in urbanizing environments?
Dr. Robin Tinghitella is a professor at the University of Denver, a behavioral ecologist, mother of three boys, and a yoga enthusiast. She graduated from the University of Portland with a B.S. in Biology before earning her Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the University of California, where she studied the evolution of animal communication. She then completed postdoctoral positions at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University (MSU). At MSU she led a National Science Foundation funded project linking ecology graduate students with K-12 teachers and students to improve the scientists’ teaching and communication skills. The experience ignited a long-lasting passion for science education, science communication, and community engagement.
Dr. Tinghitella joined the University of Denver as a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences in 2013. Her lab there works to understand the roles of animal behavior and environmental change in rapid evolution. She has published more than 45 refereed works and her studies on the sometimes bizarre mating habits of Hawaiian crickets and freshwater fish have recently been featured in Newsweek, New Scientist, AmazeLab (USA Today), and HawaiiNewsNow. Researchers in the lab are supported by the National Science Foundation, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Animal Behavior Society.
Outside of the lab, Dr. Tinghitella continues her community engaged work as co-founder and coordinator for DU SciTech, a free STEM summer camp for middle school girls who are from groups historically excluded from the sciences.
Join the Jefferson Humanists on Sunday, April 24th at 4:00 pm for this great presentation.
This program is hosted by Jefferson Humanists, a chapter of the American Humanist Association.
***
Since we are unable to meet in person for our normal Monthly Chapter Meetings, we are doing virtual meetings on Zoom. Please RSVP on Meetup or by email to RSVP@jeffersonhumanists.org to join this meeting.
Those who RSVP on Meetup will see the link to join the presentation, but you must RSVP before the meeting start time. Those who email for the link will be sent it a few days before the meeting.
For smart devices, get the free Meetup app and RSVP for the link.
Attendance is limited to the first 50 people who RSVP. We hope that you will join us!
———————————————
“Insects are so incredibly important in food webs…In terrestrial food webs, we often find that insects comprise some of the lower trophic levels — in other words, they’re eaten by lots and lots of other animals, and those animals are in turn eaten by others….Noise doesn’t just affect insects…It affects all those other organisms, too.” – Dr. Robin Tinghitella
