Jeffrey F. Kelly, PhD
Professor and Director of the School of Biological Sciences
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.
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.
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
