My current research has been focusing on how sensory perception is used in an ecological setting, especially in interspecific or intraspecific social interactions. In performing behavioral observations of focal individuals, I have also tried to integrate physiological parameters, such as hormones, immune function/disease interaction, and human impacts on populations that may separate individuals thus preventing communication (e.g., habitat fragmentation, pollution, climate change, etc.). Much of my research has been focused on herpetological species, but I have also investigated social interactions of invertebrates as well, such as arthropods.

• Kelley, M.D., J.W. Finger, and M.T. Mendonca. 2022. Male gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) concentration-dependent social responses to diluted mental gland pheromones. Behavioral Processes 201(2): ​10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104729.
• Kelley, M. D., C. Ka, J.W. Finger Jr., and M.T. Mendonça. 2021. Behavioural discrimination of male mental gland secretions of the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) by both sexes. Behavioral Processes 183, 104314.
• Kelley, M. D. and M.T. Mendonça. 2020. Mental gland secretions as a social cue in gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus): tortoise presence stimulates and maintains social behaviour with chemical cues. Acta ethologica 23(2), 1-8.
• Finger, J. W. Jr., M. T Hamilton, M. D. Kelley, N. I. Stacy, T. C. Glenn, and T. D. Tuberville. 2019. Examining the impact of chronic selenium exposure on commonly used stress parameters in juvenile American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 77, 14-21.
• Kelley, M. D., M. Creachbaum, A. Mineo, and J. W. Finger Jr. 2017. The negative effects of artificial crab spiders (Misumenops spp.) on Piper pollinator behaviour in Costa Rica during an unseasonably wet dry season. Oecologia Australis 21, 201-206.