BioacousTalks: Sensory Ecology with Jesse Barber

In this talk, Dr. Jesse Barber discusses Sensory Ecology as a lens for understanding natural systems and primarily focuses on his work with noise pollution as an example of how this approach can inform conservation. Jesse’s lab at Boise State developed the Phantom Road experiment, among many other creatively designed studies that assess the impacts of anthropogenic noise and light pollution on wildlife.

More about our speaker Jesse Barber: After completing both his BS and MS at the University of Wyoming, Jesse worked on the bioacoustics of bat-moth interactions at Wake Forest University for his PhD. He took this basic science perspective to the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service and Colorado State University for a postdoc focused on acoustic environments. Jesse has been at Boise State University, in Idaho, in the Department of Biology his entire career and am now a full professor.

This is a recording of the BioacousTalks session from Tuesday, April 30th.

0:00 Bat-moth acoustic arms race
14:35 Sound in animal sensory ecology
19:30 Anthropogenic noise impacts
22:15 Phantom road experiment
27:44 Phantom river experiment
35:20 Natural sound impacts
40:25 Sensory ecology informs conservation
46:32 Questions for Jesse