Jenélle Dowling

Advisor: Mike Webster Start Date: Fall 2009

I am currently pursuing a PhD in Mike Webster's lab. I am generally interested in how social and physical contexts affect the signal
structure and signaling behavior of birds. I have recently worked with Pete Marra at the Smithsonian Institution on a project that 1.
investigates how animal signals are modified as they propagate through different environments and 2. describes how bird songs vary with urban development, anthropogenic noise and social structure. With the Webster lab, I am currently pursuing a project that investigates the function of song chorusing behavior in different social contexts in cooperatively-breeding birds in Australia. Specifically, I am interested in how signal structure and chorusing behavior differ in contexts where interests of signalers are aligned versus misaligned.