MORPHOCHANGE: Assessing the evolutionary potential of morphology under anthropogenic changes in nocturnal wildlife

The response of wildlife to the dramatic increase of sprawling urbanization is a key question in conservation and evolutionary biology. Especially environmental changes associated with noise and light pollution are expected to be a major challenge for wildlife, causing behavioural changes or modify the functionality and performance associated with morphological traits. To better predict the consequences of these sensory pollutants it is therefore crucial to study how they can affect the relationship between functional traits, animal performance, and ultimately, fitness. Owlsare a good system to study the effects of noise and light pollution because they are nocturnal predators that strongly rely on their audio-visual senses and display a facial disc, a feathered structure that is thought to improve hearing and thus hunting during the night. Currently, we know surprisingly little about how facial disc influences hunting performance and fitness, above all in the context of light and noise pollution. Using a multi-scale evolutionary approach, the proposed research aims to understand the evolutionary potential of facial disc under anthropic changes. This research represents an important step forward in our understanding of how light and noise pollution might reshape morphological functional traits.