Gifts Contribute to Tools for Important Research
Generous donations are invaluable to supporting programs, students and research. Here are two of the ways that contributions to the department have helped to provide opportunities for students and faculty collaboration on important work.
Please consider supporting future work at the link below.
From Professor Emily Taylor
The Vapro osmometer gets a lot of use, both in classes and in research. Students in the Physiological Ecology of Reptiles Lab in the Biological Sciences Department use the device to assess the hydration of reptiles throughout the West. The osmometer measures osmolality, or the concentration of dissolved solutes in a sample. For blood plasma, a sample with high osmolality means the animal is dehydrated. Recent Frost undergraduate research fellow Nemo Buchmiller used the osmometer to optimize the storage procedures for the blood samples collected by lab personnel. Recent master's degree student Robin Bedard used the osmometer to study how pregnant female rattlesnakes can pass on the rainwater they drink to their developing fetuses. The osmometer is an extremely valuable research instrument in this laboratory.
From Professor Clint Francis
Autonomous acoustic recorders are great tools that can take student research projects to the next level and help Cal Poly researchers monitor changes in animal behavior, the timing of animal breeding activities or changes in their distributions. Recent student projects using autonomous acoustic records have considered how light pollution influence night-time singing in Northern Mockingbirds, monitoring acoustic conditions before and during construction of the new wildlife crossing bridge over highway 101 in Agoura Hills and documenting how birds alter their song in response to background noise from crashing surf. The new recorders will help Cal Poly and the California Central Coast Joint Venture embark on long-term biodiversity monitoring efforts that will help inform landscape-scale conservation initiatives on the Central Coast.
Support Biological Sciences here