University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences presents:
Fall 2021 Seminar Series
Dr. Beth Gardner
University of Washington
"Smoke on the water, fire in the sky: effects of wildfire smoke on wildlife"
Quantifying the effects of air pollution on wildlife is not only a complicated and difficult task, but also understudied. For example, despite the well-established links between smoke pollution and public health, research regarding the impacts of wildfire smoke on wildlife is scarce and thus is often ignored in ecological studies. Understanding of these effects of pollution on distribution, behavior, movement, health, etc., is crucial for wildlife management and conservation, particularly given the increase in global wildfire activity (which produces smoke that can travel 1000s of kms) and the growing pressures of human caused pollution. In this talk, I will present a set of case studies my lab is conducting on the effects of large-scale wildfire smoke on wildlife as well as the effects of changes in air pollution and traffic due to Covid-19. I will discuss different projects using data from semi-structured community science programs (e.g., eBird) to large-scale designed surveys (e.g., camera trapping, bioacoustic arrays, GPS collars) and how we integrated these data with concurrent air quality data to examine wildlife responses to pollution. We have analyzed data on over 80 different species so far (from crows to cougars), seeing variable responses to smoke pollution as measured by PM2.5, air pollution as measured by NO2, and human mobility across these different studies. I’ll summarize these findings and discuss suggestions for future studies.
Monday, October 4th, 2021
Virtual- Zoom Meeting
11:00 A.M. EST
Host: Dr. Justin Kitzes