Tanner, Jessie2020-10-262020-10-262018-08https://hdl.handle.net/11299/216819University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2018. Major: Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. Advisors: Mark Bee, Marlene Zuk. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 170 pages + 1 supplemental file.Across animal taxa, receivers exert selection on signals and signalers through mate choice. More than a century of research has sought to uncover the targets of this selection and estimate its strength, often using behavioral assays in which receivers discriminate among signals. However, the existence of mating preferences thus discovered does not guarantee their expression in natural signaling contexts. Mating preferences may vary across an individual receiver’s lifetime due to intrinsic factors such as age or mating status. Signals are complex, meaning they comprise multiple components. Individual signalers may differ from one another on the basis of multiple components simultaneously, causing selection on one trait to modulate or reverse the selection on another trait. Additionally, signals are produced repeatedly and traits vary within as well as between signalers, introducing the potential for within-individual variation in signal production to influence the expression of mating preferences. Finally, environmental noise may limit signal recognition, localization, or discrimination in natural settings. Here, I explore these constraints on the expression of mating preferences that impose sexual selection.enacoustic communicationanimal behaviorfemale choicemating preferencessexual selectionThesis or Dissertation