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Jeff Kelly

Jeffrey F. Kelly, PhD

Jeffrey F. Kelly, PhD

Professor and Director of the School of Biological Sciences


jkelly@ou.edu
Kelly's Website

Rank/Title

  • Director of the School of Biological Sciences
  • Professor 

Degrees and Institutions

  • Ph.D., Biology, Colorado State University
  • M.S., Biology, Oklahoma State University
  • B.S., Wildlife Biology, University of Maine

Research Areas

  • Aeroecology
  • Ornithology
  • Artificial Lights-at-Nigh

Research Interests

My research is focused on the emerging interdisciplinary field of Aeroecology. A core question motivating my research is “how do human activities impact the atmosphere and what are the consequences of those impacts for life in the air”? As terrestrial animals, we tend to under-appreciate the critical role of flight and volancy for most organisms. The lower atmosphere is the habitat in which flight occurs and it has been dramatically impacted by human activites.

Current research projects focus on climate and atmospheric impacts on avian migration biology, ecological consequences of artificial lights at night, soundscapes, and microplastics. Most of these projects are led by early career researchers pursuing graduate degrees others are led by post-doctoral researchers. Our research is currently supported by the National Science Foundation, USGS, The Nature Conservancy, and the Amon. G. Carter Foundation. 


Recent/Significant Publications

Bridge, ES, WT Honeycutt, AJ Chen, RM, JF Kelly. Social behavior among nocturnally migrating birds revealed by automated moonwatching, Ornithology, 2024, ukad055, https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukad055


Burt, C.S., Kelly, J.F., Trankina, G.E., Silva, C.L., Khalighifar, A., Jenkins-Smith, H.C., Fox, A.S., Fristrup, K.M. and Horton, K.G., 2023. The effects of light pollution on migratory animal behavior. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

Press release


Strand, A.I., Bridge, E.S., Kelly, J.F., Stepanian, P.M., Bodine, D.J. and Soto, J.R., 2023. A multi-sensor array for detecting and analyzing nocturnal avian migration. PeerJ, 11, p.e15622. https://peerj.com/articles/15622/


Kolbmann, C.L., Leslie, C., Anderson, C., Kelly, J.F., Ross, J.D., Jervis, L., Reedy, J. and Bridge, E.S., 2023. Perceptions of the crowded sky as assessed through response to aerial infrastructure. Frontiers in Built Environment, 9, p.1035592. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2023.1035592/full


Tielens, EK, PM Cimprich, BA Clark, AM DiPilla, JF Kelly, D Mirkovic, AI Strand, M Zhai, M, and PM Stepanian. 2021. Nocturnal City Lighting Elicits a Macroscale Response from an Insect Outbreak Population. Biol. Lett. 17 (3), rsbl.2020.0808, 20200808. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0808