UChicago Biosciences graduate student Shane DuBay (Committee on Evolutionary Biology) and UChicago Art History graduate student Carl Fuldner have recently published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that uses novel photographic techniques to analyze soot levels on bird feathers using birds from collections at the Field Museum and other natural history institutions.
The horned larks that the pair analyzed have white feathers--that is, until they are stained gray by soot, as they were during the height of U.S. coal use in the twentieth century. Since the birds' white feathers were renewed every year through molting, DuBay and Fuldner could use the levels of soot on them to calculate how much pollution was in the air during that year, filling a gap in the historical record. DuBay and Fuldner found that pollution levels were much higher than previously thought, though a midcentury turn to natural gas rather than coal helped restore the blue skies we enjoy today.
The results of this research have implications for us now, says DuBay: “While the U.S. releases far less black carbon into the atmosphere than we used to, we continue to pump less-conspicuous pollutants into our atmosphere—those pollutants just aren’t as visible as soot. Plus, many people around the world still experience soot-choked air in their cities.”
DuBay and Fuldner teamed up thanks to a Graduate Collaboration Grant from the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative. This grant encourages trans-disciplinary research between students in the arts and sciences.
Read more about DuBay and Fuldner's research on Science Life. The story was also covered by the Washington Post, BBC News, and the Discover blog, among other news outlets.