Understanding odour information to influence mammalian herbivore decisions. This project aims to quantify how plant odour information, its quality and utility, affect herbivore foraging decisions. It

Description

Understanding odour information to influence mammalian herbivore decisions. This project aims to quantify how plant odour information, its quality and utility, affect herbivore foraging decisions. It also aims to apply this knowledge to test artificial odours designed to alter food choice and so improve plant growth and survival. Expected project outcomes are an understanding of when, why and how herbivores respond to olfactory information as well as the quantitative characterisation of odour information as it degrades to “noise”. Translating this knowledge should provide significant environmental and economic benefits by generating a novel, non-lethal strategy that manipulates odour information to nudge animals away from valued plants, thereby protecting threatened plant species, revegetation programs and crops.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3103 - Ecology. Lead: Prof Clare McArthur