Research Interests
Light PollutionLight pollution, or the presence of unnatural levels of light at night, is one of the most widespread and rapidly increasing anthropogenic stressors. Although a small proportion of avian diversity is represented in urban habitats, many suburban or rural residing species are also at risk via agricultural facility lighting, polluted migratory passages, lighted greenspaces near roadways and airports, illumination of shorelines, and other sources. As the majority of organisms on earth evolved in the absence of such intense nighttime illumination, light pollution poses a novel and spatiotemporally extensive threat to birds. |
Zoonotic diseaseNot much is known about how anthropogenic stressors, namely light pollution, can affect the spread of infectious disease. We use host competence, or the propensity of an individual to generate new infections in other hosts or vectors, to describe the state of an individual during infection. In our first study, we found that exposure to light pollution enhanced the infectiousness of West Nile virus infected house sparrows without affecting mortality. I am interested in exploring the effects of spectral composition of light at night on melatonin dysregulation as well. |
