Barbara J. Pierce, Ph.D.

Degrees & Certifications

• PhD, College of Environmental Life Sciences, Natural Resources Sciences, University of Rhode Island (2003)
• MA, Biological Sciences, Central CT State University (1996)
• BS, Biology, Eastern CT State University (1993)

Teaching Responsibilities

• BI 105 Introduction to Nutrition
• BI 185 Biology and Psychology of Conservation
• BI 112/114 Concepts in Biology I
• BI 202 Ecology: Populations to Ecosystems
• BI 206/208 Anatomy and Physiology I and II
• BI 245 Vertebrate Biology
• BI 265 Conservation Biology
• BI 312/314 Systems Physiology

Research Interests & Grants

The Pierce research lab focuses on the specific nutrient requirements of birds during migration and the influence of those nutrients on a bird’s ability to complete migration. Migratory songbirds choose foods with specific unsaturated fatty acids. Birds that store certain fatty acids in their fat deposits use less energy during flight than birds with other types of fatty acids. We are currently examining how antioxidants and changes in the fatty acid composition of deposited fat affect energetic performance in birds. There is a lot of public interest in dietary antioxidants and how they promote human health. Migratory birds offer an interesting model for the relationship between antioxidants and fat metabolism, because birds have relatively low rates of free radical production despite their high metabolic rates. Our research uses two of the world’s premier avian wind tunnels; one at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and the other at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany. We collaborate with researchers at both facilities as well as researchers at the University of Rhode Island, USA, and Jagellonian University in Poland.  Our primary research funding has been through the Division of Integrative and Organismal Systems and International Research Education for Undergraduate grants of the National Science Foundation.