Embracing complexity at the physiology and behaviour interface will benefit conservation science

Over recent years, the opinion that physiology or behaviour are the most sensitive indicators of environmental change has become less prominent, with the recognition that complex dynamic feedback loops exist between an individual’s physiology and behaviour. The fluidity of the physiology/behaviour interface and its sensitivity to abiotic factors, such as exposure to temperature change and low oxygen (hypoxia), or biotic factors, such as genetics, reproductive status or social interaction, form an organism’s context. Individual contexts can make the way animals respond to an environmental challenge difficult to predict and conservation efforts incredibly challenging. Our Perspective draws on examples from across the animal kingdom presented at the 2024 Society for Experimental Biology symposium, ‘Linking Physiology and Behaviour in a Changing World’, which investigated the interplay between an animal’s context and the environmental challenges they experience, in shaping the physiology/behaviour interface. Our Perspective highlights that if we want to address the conservation and biodiversity implications of the rapid environmental change we now face, it is critical that we continue to move away from reductionist methodologies and adopt holistic interdisciplinary approaches to provide conservation biologists with the tools they need to solve our most pressing conservation challenges.