Papers

Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap

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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

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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.17490Photo credit: A male orca travels quickly near a large cargo ship transiting through the Salish Sea. Photo by Candice Emmons, NOAA Fisheries. Summary adapted from social media post by Anna Testorf: One of our recent studies

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

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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

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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

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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

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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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Ecosystem Sentinels as Early-Warning Indicators in the Anthropocene

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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.

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The value of field research in academia

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Authors: Kasim Rafiq, Neil R. Jordan, J. Weldon McNutt, John Neelo, Nina Attias, Dee Boersma, Meredith S. Palmer, Jennifer Ruesink, and Briana AbrahmsJournal: ScienceDOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado6937 “By refining the academic system to recognize and support different forms of scientific inquiry equally, we can build the diverse research community necessary to empower discovery across disciplines.”

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The capacity of sentinel species to detect changes in environmental conditions and ecosystem structure

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Authors: T. J. Clark-Wolf, Katie A. Holt, Erik Johansson, Anna C. Nisi, Kasim Rafiq, Leigh West, P. Dee Boersma, Elliott L. Hazen, Sue E. Moore, Briana AbrahmsJournal: Journal of Applied EcologyDOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14669 “A major obstacle to preventing and reversing biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene lies in the scarcity of tools and data for monitoring the health and trajectory of ecosystems. Sentinel species can provide insight into unobserved ecosystem change,

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A fearful scourge to the penguin colonies: Southern giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus) predation on living Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) may be more common than assumed

Boersma Lab, Papers /

Authors: Dr. Ginger Rebstock and Dr. P Dee BoersmaJournal: Marine Ecology Press SeriesDOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14476 Excerpt from abstract: Southern giant petrels (Macronectes giganteus) are important consumers that range across the oceans throughout the southern hemisphere […] Here we describe a predation attempt by a trio of southern giant petrels on a molting adult Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) at the large colony

A fearful scourge to the penguin colonies: Southern giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus) predation on living Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) may be more common than assumed Read More »

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