Professor Awarded National Grant for Bird Research
Professor Clint Francis received nearly $900,000 of a National Science Foundation grant to study the impact of human-caused noise and light pollution on birds.
A Cal Poly professor and student researchers are embarking on a five-year study to better understand how exposure to human-caused noise and light pollution affects birds.
Clint Francis, a professor of biological sciences and honoree of Cal Poly’s Distinguished Scholarship Award, recently was awarded $893,079 that is part of a $2.6 million National Science Foundation grant, also involving researchers at Duke University and Washington State University.
The world is becoming more urbanized, and the fundings will allow Francis and his students to answer key questions about how birds will cope with the challenges of an increasingly noisy and bright world.
“In doing so, the project will build a testable framework for generalizing avian response to human-caused sensory pollution, which will give us important insights on what kind of birds we should see in a more urbanized future,” Francis said.