Project Grant 2223973

This $714,816 National Science Foundation project grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund research at the University of Washington from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2025. The research aims to better understand how environmental health disparities in urban areas impact the trophic and disease dynamics of carnivore populations. Specifically, the project will examine links between toxicant exposure, altered diets, and disease risk for urban carnivores in Seattle-Tacoma, San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles. Researchers will use health disparity maps, wildlife camera trapping, necropsies, stable isotope analysis, and genetic analysis of scat samples to quantify these linkages. They will also conduct diet trials with captive coyotes to experimentally measure diet impacts on immune function. Insights gained could help urban planners predict how pollution reduction and green space influence carnivore abundance and health, promoting biodiversity conservation in urbanizing areas.