Noise in Visual Communication: Motion from Wind-Blown Plants

Abstract

Animals demonstrate with their signalling strategies that they are sensitive to signal efficacy. Signallers can choose favourable conditions or alter the structure of their signals at times of increased noise. The nature of these adjustments has provided important insights into how signal evolution is constrained by the noise landscape. Only recently, have we shown that the structure of movement-based visual signals depends on ambient motion noise caused by wind-blown plants, but our depth of understanding has been constrained by our limited knowledge of motion noise. We therefore need to understand in detail how plants move. In this chapter, I outline how and why plant interactions with wind will vary according to plant species, plant geometry, microhabitat structure, and the light environment. Ultimately, we will need to consider signal and noise together to truly determine the masking effect of plant motion. With this in mind, I conclude by suggesting that a fresh look at movement-based signals and plant motion noise is needed.