The Abrahms Lab – Briana Abrahms, Biology assistant professor; Kasim Rafiq, Biology postdoctoral researcher; and Leigh West, Biology graduate student – was featured on the UW Homepage this week for their work studying the behavior of endangered African wild dogs in Botswana. Read the full article on the UW homepage. Congratulations, all!
Congratulations to Dr. Sue Moore on joining the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission! The U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Sue Moore, President Biden’s nominee for Commissioner of the Marine Mammal Commission, on December 22nd, 2022. Sue was sworn in by Commission Chair, Dr. Frances Gulland, on January 5th, 2023.
Dr. Eric Wagner, Dr. Esteban Frere, and Dr. Dee Boersma published an article on how changing oil tanker routes prevented Magellanic penguins from suffering chronic oil pollution. Read the abstract on the Marine Pollution Bulletin website.
Katie Holt and Dr. Dee Boersma published an article about an unprecedented, single-day, heat-related mortality event of Magellanic Penguins at Punta Tombo. Read about the after effects in the journal Ornithological Applications.
The research, led by scientists at the Abrahms Lab and published in Nature Climate Change, reveals that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Read about the paper on the NSF site.
Authors: Eric L. Wagner, Esteban Frere, P. Dee BoersmaJournal: Marine Pollution BulletinDOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.11 A goal for conservation biologists is to show that policies enacted on behalf of an imperiled species results in direct benefits for it. In Argentina, tens of thousands of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) were estimated to have died from chronic oil pollution each year through the early 1980s. From 1982 to 1990, surveys at sites along approximately 900 km of Chubut Province coastline found that >60 % of penguin carcasses had evidence of oiling in some years. In response to these findings, as well as pressure from …
Authors: Sue E MooreJournal: ICES Journal of Marine ScienceDOI: 0.1093/icesjms/fsad030 I describe my path through a series of opportunities that provided stepping stones from childhood years in the landlocked US Midwest to a 45-year-long career focused on cetacean behaviour and ecology. My early interest in the ocean and dolphins led me to switch from majoring in journalism to biology during my undergraduate years. While pursuing a master’s degree focused on bioacoustics, I was employed as a contract scientist with the US Navy’s marine mammal laboratory. During 20 years there, my work ranged from dolphin calling behaviour to marine mammal distribution in …
Chasing inter-species communication: what marine mammals are telling us about our oceans Read More »
Authors: Jennifer B Tennessen, Marla M Holt, Brianna M Wright, M Bradley Hanson, Candice K Emmons, Deborah A Giles, Jeffrey T Hogan, Sheila J Thornton, Volker B DeeckeJournal: Behavioral EcologyDOI: 10.1093/beheco/arad002Coverage: The Seattle Times, Skagit Valley Herald, Seattle King 5 News, KUOW Public Radio, Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud”, Victoria Times Colonist, North Shore News In cooperative species, human-induced rapid environmental change may threaten cost–benefit tradeoffs of group behavioral strategies that evolved in past environments. Capacity for behavioral flexibility can increase population viability in novel environments. Whether the partitioning of individual responsibilities within social groups is fixed or flexible …
Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales Read More »
Authors: Eric L. Wagner, Scott F. Pearson, Thomas P. Good, Peter J. Hodum, Eric R. Buhle, Michael B. SchrimpfJournal: Marine Ecology Progress SeriesDOI: link to doi/paper A severe marine heat wave (MHW) persisted in the California Current ecosystem from 2014 through 2016. The MHW featured record-high sea surface temperatures in 2015, with 2014 to 2016 being the warmest 3 yr period on record. Our decade-long (2010-2019) breeding and diet monitoring of the rhinoceros auklet Cerorhinca monocerata, a burrow-nesting seabird, at significant breeding colonies on Destruction Island (California Current) and Protection Island (Salish Sea) allowed us to compare reproductive and dietary …
Resilience to a severe marine heatwave at two Pacific seabird colonies Read More »
Authors: Briana Abrahms, Neil H. Carter, T. J. Clark-Wolf, Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Erik Johansson, Alex McInturff, Anna C. Nisi, Kasim Rafiq & Leigh WestJournal: Nature Climate ChangeDOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01608-5Coverage: KUOW, NPR, The Guardian, Newsweek, Scientific American Climate change and human–wildlife conflict are both pressing challenges for biodiversity conservation and human well-being in the Anthropocene. Climate change is a critical yet underappreciated amplifier of human– wildlife conflict, as it exacerbates resource scarcity, alters human and animal behaviors and distributions, and increases human–wildlife encounters. We synthesize evidence of climate-driven conflicts occurring among ten taxonomic orders, on six continents and in all five oceans. …
Climate change as a global amplifier of human–wildlife conflict Read More »
