Natural and Virtual Realms: An Integrative Approach Towards Understanding Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Animal Behavior and Energetics in Marine Ecosystems

Funding Year: 2014

Research Areas: Climate, Other, Oceans

Regions: North America

Increasing public understanding of the effects of climate change on ecosystems is often limited by our ability to convey the complex interactions between organisms and the dynamic environments in which they live. This project will translate data from electronically tagged marine animals, such as alingcod or jellyfish, in the kelp forests of Monterey Bay into virtual reality where humans can enter the underwater realm to observe or become a fish in order to better understand how their movement and behavior is driven by the changing environmental conditions.

The EVP team's approach will provide an unparalleled tool that will allow a broad audience the personal, virtual, experience needed to become environmentally educated on marine, and other, climate change issues.

Learn more about the Environmental Venture Projects grant program and other funded projects.

Principal Investigators:

Jeremy Goldbogen, Assistant Professor of Biology

Jeremy Bailenson, Thomas More Storke Professor, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Education

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