Southern Fried Science

#SciFund is a month-and-a-half long initiative to raise funds for a variety of scientific research projects. Project leaders post a project description and an appeal for funds, and members of the public are invited to make small donations to projects that they deem worthy. Donations come with rewards such as access to project logs, images from fieldwork, your name in the acknowledgements of publications, among other possibilities. Many of these projects are marine or conservation themed. Over the next week, we’ll highlight some of our favorites. Please take a look at these projects and, should you so desire, send some financial support their way. If you do make a donation, let them know how you found out about their project and leave a comment (anonymous if you’d like) on this post letting us know.

Tracking the migration of the Atlantic Puffin

Dr. Robin Freeman is a post-doctoral researcher investigating the movement and behaviour of seabirds, including the Atlantic Puffin. Her project tracks the movement of migratory Atlantic puffins and she is interested in determining how stable puffin migratory tracks are over multiple years and what effect climate plays during their journeys. Funding for this project would be used to purchase and deploy tracking devices.

One thing I like to see is that her past research is published open access, so that anyone interested in contributing can dig a little deeper into the science – A Dispersive Migration in the Atlantic Puffin and Its Implications for Migratory Navigation. So go check out Dr. Freeman’s project for yourself and help support marine science.