Sexual communication collapse in a polluted world
Animals rely on evolved sensory cues to decide where to live and whom to mate with, but urban conditions can render once-reliable signals misleading, turning habitats into ecological traps. Chemical communication, which governs reproduction across most animal life, remains largely unexamined in cities.
We study the cross spider Araneus diadematus because it externalizes its signal onto the web, which we can collect and analyze. The web also traps airborne pollutants, which the spider ingests every night before ita new web with mate-attractant pheromone is built after dawn.
Analyzing webs thus targets both, signal and anthropogenic pollutants.
Urban pollutants may disrupt communication at any stage, and we test each: pheromone production, transmission, and male reception. Contrasting urban and rural sites, we combine behavioural assays with untargeted and targeted metabolomics (LC-HRMS, GC-MS) and metal analysis (ICP-MS).
Identifying which pollutants disrupt animal signals informs the mechanisms underlying biodiversity loss we can act on. Because a web records pollutants at doses organisms experience, our work also establishes spider webs as ecotoxicological biomonitors. Together, this program will guide sustainable urban planning and enable earth-friendly, pheromone-based pest management.
We are seeking students (BSc) to contribute to research in urban chemical ecology.
Animal Metabolomics & Ecology 