Written by Dr. Kasim Rafiq In June 2024, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kasim Rafiq and PhD candidate Leigh West from Dr. Briana Abrahms‘ lab returned to Wild Dog Camp in the Okavango Delta and were joined by Briana’s new PhD student Marie-Pier Poulin. The team successfully deployed six new tracking collars on African wild dogs, including in two brand new packs, […]
Field Updates: Botswana, summer 2024 Read More »
Congratulations to Leigh West, Dr. Abrahms’s graduate student, who just recently published her first paper as lead author. Her research article, “Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap,” was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on October 4th, and also serves as the second chapter of her dissertation. This is an exciting milestone for Leigh as she
Abrahms Lab grad student Leigh West publishes first article Read More »
Authors: Leigh West, Kasim Rafiq, Sarah J. Converse, Alan M. Wilson, Neil R. Jordan, Krystyna A. Golabek, J. Weldon McNutt, Briana AbrahmsJournal: Journal of Animal EcologyDOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14192 From the Abstract:Droughts are increasing in frequency and severity globally due to climate change, leading to changes in resource availability that may have cascading effects on animal ecology. Although several studies have demonstrated
Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap Read More »
Authors: Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Briana Abrahms, Kezia R. Manlove, William K. Oestreich and Justine A. SmithJournal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society BDOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0527 From the abstract: “Here, we review studies of animal behaviour at the spatial–social interface to understand and predict how human disturbance affects animal movement, distribution and intraspecific interactions, with consequences for the conservation of populations and
Anthropogenic impacts at the interface of animal spatial and social behaviour Read More »
Authors: Simona Picardi, Briana L. Abrahms and Jerod A. MerkleJournal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society BDOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0523https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0523 From the abstract: “We propose three key innovations that incrementally build upon each other […] These conceptual innovations cast our understanding of the relationships between social and spatial dimensions of animal ecology in a new light, allowing a more holistic understanding and
Scale at the interface of spatial and social ecology Read More »
Authors: Deqiang Ma, Briana Abrahms, Jacob Allgeier, Tim Newbold, Brian C. Weeks, and Neil H. CarterJournal: Science AdvancesDOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp7706Coverage: UW News, The Guardian “We show that the potential spatial overlap of global human populations and 22,374 terrestrial vertebrate species will increase across ~56.6% and decrease across only ~11.8% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface by 2070 […] The strong spatial heterogeneity
Global expansion of human-wildlife overlap in the 21st century Read More »
Authors: T. J. Clark-Wolf, P. Dee Boersma, Floriane Plard, Ginger A. Rebstock, and Briana AbrahmsJournal: PNASDOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2406314121 “Using a multidecadal dataset on Magellanic penguins, we show that despite strong selection on body size, some environmental conditions favored larger bodies, and others favored smaller bodies, thus preventing consistent evolution in one direction or the other […] Such findings highlight that fluctuating
Authors: Stephanie Dodson, William K. Oestreich, Matthew S. Savoca, Elliott L. Hazen, Steven J. Bograd, John P. Ryan, Jerome Fiechter & Briana AbrahmsJournal: Scientific ReportsDOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65827-2 “Social information is predicted to enhance the quality of animals’ migratory decisions in dynamic ecosystems, but the relative benefits of social information in the long-range movements of marine megafauna are unknown. In particular, whether
Long-distance communication can enable collective migration in a dynamic seascape Read More »
Authors: Gemma Carroll, Briana Abrahms, Stephanie Brodie & Megan A. Cimino Journal: Nature Ecology and Evolution DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02454-0 “Climate change is driving a rapid redistribution of life on Earth. Variability in the rates, magnitudes and directions of species’ shifts can alter spatial overlap between predators and prey, with the potential to decouple trophic interactions. Although phenological mismatches between predator requirements
Spatial match-mismatch between predators and prey under climate change Read More »
Authors: Elliott L. Hazen, Matthew S. Savoca T.J. Clark-Wolf, Max Czapanskiy, Peter M. Rabinowitz, and Briana AbrahmsJournal: Annual Review of Environment and ResourcesDOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-111522-102317 “Sentinel species, from birds to invertebrates, have been used to provide insights into ecosystem function, as leading indicators of risk to human health and as harbingers of future change, with implications for ecosystem structure and function.
Ecosystem Sentinels as Early-Warning Indicators in the Anthropocene Read More »
