Research in this area spans a wide range of organisms and ecological systems, from social insects, free-ranging dogs and fish shoals to plants, microorganisms and natural communities. Department laboratories investigate how individual behaviour shapes collective outcomes, how organisms interact with one another and their environments, and how ecological and evolutionary processes influence these interactions over time. Research encompasses collective decision-making and rescue behaviour in ants, cognition and human–animal interactions in free-ranging dogs, behavioural and community ecology, biodiversity and restoration, plant–insect chemical communication, and microbial ecology and ecosystem processes. Much of this work is grounded in field-based research, including studies conducted at the department's Behaviour and Ecology Field Station.