Addressing the ongoing and huge decline in the abundance and variety of plants and animals in the Midwest is essential. Many people are aware of earlier extinctions, but they are surprisingly unaware of how rapidly biodiversity has declined in just the past 50 years. Birds in North America are a dramatic example, as nearly 1 in 3 have disappeared since 1970.

Biodiversity loss results in diminished awareness of our place in nature and has direct impacts on our well-being, such as:

• Loss of ecosystem services, which are critical in sustaining our food supply
• Reduced biocontrol of pests, which adds vulnerability to our food supply
• Increased exposure to zoonotic diseases that cross from wildlife to humans

The losses matter for many reasons. Nature provides services that we depend on, like clean air and clean water. Nature also supports our sense of well-being. And the truth is we don’t really know what a collapse in nature will mean for our future, but we can be quite sure it won’t be good for our health, environments, and economies. For these reasons, investing in research on biodiversity is truly worthwhile.

We currently focus our efforts on the following priority research areas:

• Impacts of climate change: As the climate changes, some animals will be out of sync with the resources they depend upon. In collaboration with colleagues at other institutions across the continent, we are studying the phenology of American Robins, to assess how flexible backyard birds are to the changing climate across North America.
• Endangered species conservation: We study Andean Flamingo ecology in South America, where threats to their environment include mining activities and climate change. We are currently working with colleagues in Argentina to identify the wetlands these birds most depend upon throughout the year.
• Artificial light at night: Wildlife evolved under nighttime darkness and are now exposed to artificial light at night (ALAN), which can impact their daily and seasonal rhythms. We do experimental studies to evaluate how ALAN influences immunity and stress in birds, their susceptibility to parasites, and the timing of their migrations.
• Making IU a "bird friendly" campus: Every year, countless numbers of birds in North America are killed or injured when they fly into windows. We are quantifying the impact of window strikes on birds on IU Bloomington’s campus. We aim to devise technology to make our campus safer for birds as they migrate through Indiana, a major crossroads of bird migration.
• Developing methods for rearing birds in captivity: Songbirds are famously difficult to breed in captivity, but we are developing protocols that have been successful, creating opportunities for conservation.

We are also expanding the role of the IU Bloomington campus as a "living laboratory" by providing field research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students who study birds on the IU Bloomington campus.

Thank you for your generous support of this vital work!