Papers

Ship collision risk threatens whales across the world’s oceans

Authors: Nisi, A., Welch, H., Brodie, S., Leiphardt, C., Rhodes, R., Hazen, E., Redfern, J., Branch, T., Baretto, A., Calambokidis, J., Clavelle, T., Dares. L., Devos, A., Gero, S., Jackson, J., Kenney, R., Kroodsma, D., Leaper, R., McCauley, D., Moore, S., Ovsyanikova, E., Panigada, S., Robinson, C., White, T., Wilson, J., and Abrahms, BJournal: ScienceDOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp1950Media coverage: The Guardian, UW […]

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Foot darkening with age in Spheniscus penguins: applications and functions

Authors: Ginger Rebstock, Pearl Wellington, Dee BoermsaJournal: PeerJDOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17937 From the abstract: “We found that Spheniscus penguins have pale feet at hatching and the feet become darker with age throughout the lives of individuals. We showed that we can accurately predict the age structure of a colony of Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus, but not the ages of individual penguins, based

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Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap

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

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Males miss and females forgo: Auditory masking from vessel noise impairs foraging efficiency and success in killer whales

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: Global Change BiologyDOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17490Media coverage: National Geographic, KUOW, KIRO 7, Capital Daily, Vancouver Sun, UW News, MSN, and E&E NEWS Summary adapted from social media post by Anna Testorf: One of our recent studies illustrates how noise from large ships and other vessels decreases overall

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Anthropogenic impacts at the interface of animal spatial and social behaviour

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

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Scale at the interface of spatial and social ecology

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

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Global expansion of human-wildlife overlap in the 21st century

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

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Increasing environmental variability inhibits evolutionary rescue in a long-lived vertebrate

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

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Long-distance communication can enable collective migration in a dynamic seascape

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

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Spatial match-mismatch between predators and prey under climate change

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

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