Barbara Francik is an early-career researcher focusing on animal behaviour and ecology. She has taken part in expeditions around the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, and worked on species ranging from insects to seabirds.
Most recently, she was the Lead Scientist for Ornithology on the Oxford University Centennial Expedition to Svalbard, which was supported by the RGS Gino Watkins Fund Awards. There, as part of a team of early-career researchers, she led the deployment of camera traps and acoustic recorders to track seabird behaviour at huge cliff-face breeding colonies around Kongsfjorden. The aim is to understand how constant light during the polar day – the famous “midnight sun” – affects daily cycles of activity at the colonies, and how this activity is further shaped by the presence of Arctic foxes.
Barbara has also conducted fieldwork in Kenya as part of a student-led international project to carry out biodiversity surveys at Il Ngwesi Community Conservancy. She has also worked in the Peruvian Amazon, where she has supported projects investigating mercury accumulation in frogs and whether eDNA can be used to understand frog diets. In the UK, she did her Masters research on Skomer Island, Wales, setting up audio recorders in Manx shearwater nests to understand how chicks communicate with their parents.
Sessions at Explore Weekend
Sunday
11.30am-12.30pm: Expedition Tech: Bioacoustics & Infrasound
