Funding

The work of the Behavioral Complexity Lab and its members is only possible through the support of the following agencies, organizations, and programs. The BCL has brought in >$6.6M in grant funding.

Click to see the Lab’s funding sources

Technology development (artifical intelligence and sensor fabrication)

Microsoft Corporation
US Department of Defense
UW School of Computing
UW Center for Global Studies

Hawaii VINE Project (2014 - present)

SERDP (US Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and EPA)

Panama PLUMAS Project (2014 - present)

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
National Science Foundation
National Geographic
NASA
UW College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources
UW Center for Global Studies

Student grants

UW Biodiversity Institute
Wyoming Research Scholars Program
Laramie Audubon Society
American Ornithologists’ Society (and Union)
Laramie Audubon Society
UW Department of Zoology & Physiology
American Museum of Natural History
Animal Behavior Society
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Harvard College

Educational Innovation

The lab has been awarded funding from NASA and UW’s CALSNR (College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources) to develop and test innovative teaching tools including:

Ultra-wideband (UWB) tracking of instructor behavior in large active-learning classrooms
Gamifying Introductory Biology using original card games
The 70k Brick Project: LEGO-based learning in Introductory Biology
Learning with Faculty: Sensor Fabrication from Scratch

Main project areas

At the Behavioral Complexity Lab, we investigate how animals sense, communicate, and make decisions within complex ecological and social systems, focusing on tropical ecosystems like Panama and Hawaii. Combining field-based natural history, bioacoustics, custom sensors, experiments, and large-scale monitoring with information theory, AI, causal modeling, and network analysis, we map behavioral networks, track information flow, and reveal how communication, competition, predation, and environmental change shape populations and communities. Our main project areas include:

Animal Communication & Contest Dynamics: Our research investigates how animals use signals to navigate competitive and social interactions. Using acoustic monitoring, deep learning, experiments, and network analysis, we study how individuals assess rivals, coordinate behavior, and decide when to escalate or retreat. By linking communication networks with contest behavior, we reveal how signals shape territorial dynamics, guide decision-making, and drive the evolution of competitive strategies in tropical communities.
Hawaii VINE Project (Vertebrate Introductions in Novel Ecosystems): The VINE Project investigates how introduced vertebrates integrate into and reshape ecological networks. We study how interactions shift across environments, how disturbance alters connectivity, and how biodiversity supports resilience and community reorganization.
Panama PLUMAS (Precipitation and Land Use Effects on Multiple Avian Species): PLUMAS examines how rainfall and land-use change affect bird behavior, populations, and communities. We track flock coordination, climate-driven habitat use, and community shifts to connect behavioral ecology with large-scale environmental change.
Deep Tropics Project: The Deep Tropics Project studies biodiversity, communication, and species interactions in tropical ecosystems. Using acoustic monitoring, network models, and AI, we examine how environmental change and disturbance shape behavior, community structure, and ecosystem responses.
Project BITE (Biotic Interactions in Threat Ecology): Project BITE investigates how predation risk shapes behavior, sensory systems, and ecological interactions. Working largely in the tropics, we study how animals detect predators, protect offspring, and evolve survival-enhancing traits, revealing how predators structure communities.
Project PROBE (Practices, Reproducibility, Objectivity, and Bias in Ecology): PROBE examines how analytical choices influence scientific conclusions and contribute to bias. We track how methods spread, develop reproducible workflows, and study how collective decisions shape interpretation to strengthen ecological research.

Full project list

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Assessment of numerical advantage in animal contests

Summary: We explore how animals perceive and respond to differences in group size during conflicts. We use field-based experiments reveal how territory holders assess intrusion threat based on numerical advantage.

Contributors: Tanner Warder (undergraduate)

Bite force in insectivorous birds

Summary: By measuring bite strength in insect-eating tropical birds, we are testing how feeding performance relates to diet specialization and morphology; this work also launched the lab’s program to develop new technologies for assessing individual performance in the wild.”

Contributors: BCL and collaborators

Chronic physiological stress along precipitation and fragmentation gradients

This study measures stress hormones in birds across rainfall and habitat-fragmentation gradients. We are testing how these two global environmental drivers interact to affect health and resilience of tropical bird species.

Contributors: PLUMAS Team, Angela Zhu, Nar Trippel

Context-dependent information transfer in birds

Using fine-scale time-series analysis, we investigate what counts as “information” in animal signaling and how its transmission shifts with social context, showing that birds convey the most information during high-threat territorial encounters.

BCL

Eavesdropping and community structuring in army ant following birds

This work explores how species use acoustic cues to locate army-ant swarms. We find that asymmetric “eavesdropping” helps organize community structure in mixed-species foraging assemblages.

Michael Castano, PLUMAS Team

Experimental tests of the function of vocal duetting in tropical birds

Using controlled playback experiments, we test competing hypotheses about duetting: cooperation, mate guarding, or joint defense. The results reveal how coordinated signaling may stabilize social partnerships.

Erin Stewart

Exploring within-species variation in suboscine song

We investigate how and why song varies within and among individuals of suboscine birds, which lack vocal learning. Acoustic analyses reveal the evolutionary balance between genetic constraint and ecological adaptation.

Erin Stewart, Austin Barth

Fluctuating natural selection on nest survival of tropical birds

This project quantifies temporal changes in selection pressures on nest survival. Using multi-year datasets from several species, we test how fluctuating environments affect evolutionary trajectories in tropical bird populations.

BCL

Importance of abiotic and biotic factors on network structure in novel ecosystems

This project evaluates how both environmental factors (e.g., climate, habitat) and biological interactions determine network architecture in novel ecosystems. Results inform how ecological complexity persists or erodes with disturbance.

Corey Tarwater, Jinelle Sperry, Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni, Jeff Foster, Don Drake

PLUMAS: Precipitation and Land Use Effects on Multiple Avian Species

PLUMAS examines how rainfall and land-use change jointly affect bird communities across Panama. By linking precipitation patterns to biodiversity, behavior, and physiology, this project clarifies how climate and habitat shape tropical ecosystems.

PLUMAS Team

Quantification of signal display complexity in birds

We apply information theory to measure and assess the function of the complexity of the social displays in tropical birds.

BCL

Soundscapes along tropical forest gradients

We map how biodiversity and human disturbance shape forest soundscapes. Acoustic data provide an integrative measure of ecosystem health and biotic change across tropical gradients.

Erin Stewart

Spatial variation in complex ecological networks

We use interaction networks to explore how species relationships change across space. By quantifying variation in network structure, we reveal how local conditions shape ecological connectivity.

Corey Tarwater, Jinelle Sperry, Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni, Jeff Foster, Don Drake

The ‘BCI Effect Project’: History and effects of extreme predation risk

Using Barro Colorado Island’s unique history of isolation, this project examines how chronic high predation influences bird behavior, physiology, and life history. Results illuminate how predator pressure drives evolutionary and ecological divergence.

BCL

The shape of natural selection of nest and traits

We analyze long-term data to determine how natural selection acts on avian nest design and egg patterning. By relating nest and egg traits to survival outcomes, we explore how behavioral and environmental factors shape adaptive nest architecture and egg coloration.

BCL

Visual assessment of risk in jumping spiders

This project examines how jumping spiders use visual cues to assess predation risk, using controlled experiments and AI-based video analysis to test how movement, size, and approach speed shape their decisions and escape behavior.

Ryen Nielson

Vocal correlates of fighting ability in tropical birds

This project investigates whether vocal traits signal competitive strength. Acoustic analyses and behavioral tests assess how song structure predicts dominance and contest outcomes.

Erin Stewart, Austin Barth, Jess Kowalski

Multidimensional acoustic interaction networks in tropical forests

This project examines how animal communication networks are structured across species, habitats, and time. By mapping “who talks to whom” acoustically, we aim to understand the drivers of information flow and biodiversity in sound-rich tropical environments.

Jess Kowalski, Austin Barth, and Marcus Anderson

sonoBEAST modular acoustic logger

The sonoBEAST project develops and tests lightweight, field-friendly acoustic sensors and deep-learning tools to detect, identify, and analyze animal sounds in biodiverse tropical forests. By mapping vocal networks, it reveals behavioral complexity, species interactions, and ecological change.

Michael Castano

Large-scale experimental tests of network resilience in a novel ecosystem in Hawaii

The project manipulates plant–seed disperser interactions in a novel ecosystem to uncover mechanisms of community stability, resilience, and recovery—offering large-scale, real-world insight into how biodiversity supports ecosystem function under change.

Zach Holmes, Garrett Higgins, Corey Tarwater, Jinelle Sperry, Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni, Jeff Foster, Don Drake

Visual and auditory cues of predation risk in army-ant following flocks

We assess how mixed-species flocks detect predators using both sight and sound. Experiments along forest gradients reveal how multimodal signals coordinate escape behavior and shape community cohesion.

Marcus Anderson, Rebecca Franke

Olfactory cues for detecting army-ant swarms in army any following birds

We test whether tropical birds can smell army-ant presence and activity. Controlled field experiments assess whether olfactory cues supplement auditory and visual signals in locating foraging opportunities.