Articles

Michael Reichert, Assistant Professor.

Behavioral Ecology, Animal Communication, Sexual Selection, Bioacoustics.

Ph.D., 2011, University of Missouri

Email: michael.reichert@okstate.edu

Lab Website

Specific Interests

I am interested in the evolution of animal communication behaviors. Animal communication has a major impact on fitness, particularly for signals involved in sexual selection, and the diversity and complexity of animal signals provide numerous opportunities for studying the evolution of complex phenotypes. The major topics of my research program include: (1) The role of social context and social network structure on the expression of communication behaviors, (2) Animal contest behavior, and in particular the mechanisms involved in opponent assessment and recognition, (3) The effects of ecological characteristics, especially environmental noise, on animal communication and (4) Using female preference functions to understand the evolution of animal communication in complex environmental conditions. I primarily focus on field studies of acoustic communication in insects and anurans, but have also worked on multimodal communication in these species and acoustic and visual signaling in songbirds. Furthermore, I have an interest in animal cognition, and am particularly interested in studying the role of cognition in animal communication and contest behavior.

Selected Publications

• M.S. Reichert and G. Höbel. 2018. Phenotypic integration and the evolution of signal repertoires: a case study of treefrog acoustic communication. Ecology and Evolution 8: 3410-3429.
• M.S. Reichert and J.L. Quinn. 2017. Cognition in contests: mechanisms, ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 32: 773-785.
• M.S. Reichert, J. Finck, and B. Ronacher. 2017. Exploring the hidden landscape of female preferences for complex signals. Evolution 71: 1009-1024.
• M.S. Reichert and G. Höbel. 2015. Modality interactions alter the shape of acoustic mate preference functions in gray treefrogs. Evolution 69: 2384-2398.
• M.S. Reichert and B. Ronacher. 2015. Noise affects the shape of female preference functions for acoustic signals. Evolution 69: 381-394.
• M.S. Reichert and H.C. Gerhardt. 2013. Gray tree frogs, Hyla versicolor, give lower-frequency aggressive calls in more escalated contests. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67: 795-804.
• M.S. Reichert and H.C. Gerhardt. 2012. Trade-offs and upper limits to signal performance during close-range vocal competition in gray treefrogs, Hyla versicolor. The American Naturalist 180: 425-437.
• M.S. Reichert and H.C. Gerhardt. 2011. The role of body size on the outcome, escalation and duration of contests in the grey treefrog, Hyla versicolor. Animal Behaviour 82: 1357-1366.