SLEEPCHANGE · The ecophysiology of sleep under global change

Sleep is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and serves essential biological functions, yet, sleep incurs substantial costs in terms of increased vulnerability to predators and reduced time for acquiring resources. How sleep is regulated by ecological factors (e.g., predation) and expressed in the natural world is highly understudied, more so in non-model taxa of reptiles and amphibians. Further, sleep can be comparatively and mechanistically understood through the lens of environmental change processes such as biological invasion and urbanization. In this study, we propose to examine the degree of lability in sleep trait expression of reptiles and amphibians under environmental change and how adaptive these responses are. We will employ a comprehensive suite of electrophysiological and behavioural measures of sleep and quantify responses to, i) increased exploration during rapid population expansion of early stage biological invasion, ii) reduced predation-risk during biological invasion, iii) novel stressor of night light due to urbanization. The project will break new grounds in terms of quantification of sleep in non-model taxa using state-of-the-art technology alongside behavioural measures, application of an eco-evolutionary framework to sleep research, and understanding the role of global change processes in shaping sleep in the animal kingdom, thereby generating insights into the regulation and expression of sleep in the natural world. Through the project, the researcher will learn neurophysiological techniques of sleep quantification from the host and use novel technology developed by the collaborator. The host's distinguished academic record, domain expertise in sleep electrophysiology of reptiles and amphibians, and large research network make him uniquely qualified to transfer expertise to the researcher and help him build an interdisciplinary skillset and become an innovative academic in the field of sleep ecophysiology research.