Causal order in cue-mediated ecology: the eco-sensory triangle

Abstract

Trait-environment matching often shows that organisms fit local conditions, but it does not reveal which causal route produced the match. The eco-sensory triangle is a diagnostic framework for separating observer-measured cue fields (E), receiver sensory state (Os), interaction phenotype (Oi), and receiver-scale cue stream or modeled cue appearance (Eexp) in cue-mediated ecological systems. A match is not yet a mechanism. The same match may arise because the environment shaped the receiver, because differently tuned receivers sampled different cue streams, because movement sorted individuals into different cue environments, or because behavior altered later cue conditions. The framework turns this ambiguity into four diagnostic contrasts. Researchers can ask whether Oi persists when focal E is matched, whether a response weakens when a candidate sensory channel is masked and returns when restored, whether prior Os or a non-circular exposure/access proxy has stronger route-specific support for later Oi, and whether Oi durably alters later E or Eexp with return effects. These contrasts clarify what can be claimed from sensory-drive, receiver-bias, matching-habitat-choice, sensory-pollution and feedback studies. The framework is diagnostic rather than taxonomic: its value is to keep causal language proportional to the route actually tested.