Dr. Grant E Brown, PhD

Education

Research interests

Evolution
Behavioural Ecology

Prey use publicly available information about local habitat conditions to balance the conflicting demands of predator avoidance and other activities such as foraging and reproduction. However,environments undergo both short and long term changes resulting from a combination of natural and anthropogenic pressures, leading to increased uncertainty (the incomplete or imperfect information regarding local conditions) among prey animals. A major challenge for ecologists is to determine how prey can balance these conflicts when faced with ecological uncertainty. Given that the combined effects of global climate change, invasive species and anthropogenic habitat degradation are expected to dramatically alter environments, the need to explore the effects of ecological uncertainty is key. As a cognitive and behavioural ecologist, I examine ‘how aquatic prey use public information to adjust behavioural trade-offs to current environmental conditions’. Recently, I have focussed on neophobic predator recognition as an inducible response to elevated predation risk. However, mean predation risk is only one of many determinants of the ecological uncertainty experienced by prey.

My long term objective for the next five years is to address the key question of how ecological uncertainty shapes the expression of neophobic predator avoidance and foraging patterns of prey and what are the cognitive cost associated with neophobia. Undergraduate and graduate students interested in joining my research should contact me via email to discuss possible projects.

Please visit lab homepage for full (and updated) publication list

Brusseau A*, Feyten LEA*, Ferrari MCO, Crane AL, Brown GE. (in press). Male vs. female use of social risk assessment information. Current Zoology

Brusseau A*, Feyten LEA*, Crane AL, Brown GE. (2024). Exploring the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on predator inspection activity in Trinidadian guppies. Current Zoology, 70, 109-111.

Crane AL, Feyten LEA*, Preagola, A*, Ferrari, MCO, Brown GE. (2024). Uncertainty in antipredator decisions: a conceptual review. Biological Reviews, 99, 238-252.

Joyce BJ*, Brown GE. (2023). Olfaction and reaction: the role of olfactory and hypothalamic investment in the antipredator response of Northern Redbelly dace (Chrosomus eos) to chemical alarm cues. Current Zoology, 69, 738-746.

Brusseau A*, Feyten LEA*, Groves V*, Felismino M*, Cao Van Truong D*, Crane AL, Brown GE. (2023). Sex and background risk influence the response to acute predation threats in Trinidadian guppies. Behavioral Ecology, 34: 898-906

Feyten LEA, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. (2023). Microhabitat conditions drive uncertainty of risk and shape neophobic responses in Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata. Ecology and Evolution, 13, e10554.

Brown GE, Godin J-GJ. (2023). Ecological uncertainty and antipredator behaviour: an integrative perspective. Frontiers in Ethology, 2:1238167.

Joyce, BJ, Brown GE. (2022). Estimating the volume of biological structures from a single 2D image:  considering apparent cross-sectional area as an alternative to the ellipsoid method. Evolutionary Ecology, 36: 1061-1076.

Groves V*, Elvidge CK, Brown GE. (2022). The role of donor and receiver size in the response to public cues by Hart’s rivulus, Anablepsoides hartii. Behaviour,159: 1447-1461.

Donaldson B*, Brown GE. (2022). Simulated predation pressure leads to rapid changes in brain morphology of juvenile convict cichlids (Amitalania nigrofasciata). Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 75: 381-386.

Goldman JA*, Crane AL, Collins E*, Feyten LEA*, Brown GE. (2022). Disturbance cue communication is shaped by emitter diet and receiver background risk in Trinidadian guppies. Current Zoology, 68: 433-440.

Feyten, LEA*, Demers, EM*, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. (2022). Assessing effects of predator density and diversity on neophobia in Trinidadian guppies. Behavioral Processes, 201: 104717.

Chuard PJ-C*, Brown GE, Grant JWA. (2022). Mating competition and adult sex ratio in wild Trinidadian guppies. Behavioral Ecology, 33: 892-900.

Crane AL, Bairos-Novak KR, Goldman JA*, Brown GE. (2022). Chemical disturbance cues in aquatic systems: a review and prospectus. Ecological Monographs. 92, e01487.