Dr. Briana Abrahms
Endowed Chair in Natural History & Conservation
Download Dr. Abrahms’s full CV here (PDF)
Dr. Briana Abrahms is an Assistant Professor in the University of Washington Department of Biology, and holds the inaugural Boersma Endowed Chair of Natural History and Conservation. She earned a B.Sc. in Physics from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California-Berkeley. Prior to joining the UW, she was a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate and Ecosystems Group. See the Abrahms Lab website to learn more.
Dr. Abrahms’ research brings a unique crossover between terrestrial and marine systems to the fields of behavioral and movement ecology and conservation biology. Her research program integrates animal bio-logging technology, earth observation, and big data analytics to advance understanding of the causes and consequences of wildlife responses to global change. From marine mammals in the open ocean to large carnivores in the African savanna, research in the Abrahms Lab encompasses studies on sentinel species around the globe to understand the effects of global change on wildlife ecology and conservation. Beyond basic research, Dr. Abrahms works closely with stakeholders, managers and policy-makers to conduct user-informed science and develop innovative tools for conservation. Her work has been integrated into landscape planning for carnivore conservation in southern Africa and policies to reduce large whale mortalities along the U.S. West Coast, including the implementation of Whale Safe, a real-time tool to reduce whale-ship collisions. She is an affiliate researcher with Botswana Predator Conservation, and a member of the Southern California Blue Whale Ship Strike Working Group, the California Whale Entanglement/Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, and the West Coast Gray Whale Unusual Mortality Event Working Group.
Her research has been published in top-ranked ecology and broad-audience journals, and has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including The Atlantic, Scientific American, the Washington Post, and the BBC.
See a full list of Dr. Abrahms’s publications here.
Recent publications
Submitted and in review
bold font indicates Abrahms Lab member
Frazer, K.J., Welch, H.M., Jacox, M.G., ezama-Ochoa N., Abrahms, B., Buil, M.P., Benson, S.R., Palacios, D.M.; Smith, L.D., Bograd, S.jJ., Hazen, E.L.. Marine cold-spells in the California Current System: Modeling changes in frequency and impacts on endangered species habitat. PLOS Climate (submitted).
Lezama-Ocho, N., Welch, H., Brown, J.A., Benson, S.R., Forney, K.A., Abrahms, B., Buil, M.P., Jacox, M.G., Muhling, B.A., Liu, O.R., Clay, T.A., Freedman, R., Lipski, D., Bograd, S., Hazen, E.L., Brodie, S.. Identifying climate refugia and bright spots for highly mobile species. Ocean Sustainability (in review).
Ickin, E., Conquet, E., Abrahms, B., Albon, S.D., Blumstein, D.T., Bond, M., Boersma, P.D., Clark-Wolf, T.J., et al.. Comparative Life-Cycle Analyses Reveal Interacting Climatic and Biotic Drivers of Population Responses to Climate Change. PNAS (in review).
Fagan, W.F., Krishnan, A., Fleming, C., Sharkey, E., Chia, S., Swain, A., Abrahms, B., et al. Wild canids and felids differ in memory-related use of travel routes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (in revision).
Rafiq, K., Nisi, A., Jordan, N.R., Golabek, K. McNutt, J.W., Wilson, A., and Abrahms, B. Temperature mediates habitat selection and spatial partitioning within a large carnivore guild. Oecologia (in review).
Abrahms, B., Rafiq, K., Nisi, A., Jordan, N.R., Wilson, A., Loveridge, A., Kotze, R., Sousa, L.L., and McNutt, J.W. Intraguild competition mediates human avoidance in an endangered African large carnivore. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (in revision).
Ma, D., Halpern, B.S., Abrahms, B., Allgeier, J. , Molinos, J.G., Free, C.M., Frazier, M., Kaschner, K., Weeks, B.C., Carter, N.H. Strategic planning could reduce global mariculture impacts on marine biodiversity while expanding seafood production. Nature Ecology and Evolution (in revision).
Latest news
-
Abrahms Lab grad student Leigh West publishes first article
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…
-
WRF Symposium
Dr. Kasim Rafiq recently presented his work on using animal-worn sensors to understand the impacts of environmental change on African wild dogs and lions at the Washington Research Foundation Symposium, who fund his position at the university. As part of this work, over the past two years, Kasim, Leigh West, and Dr. Briana Abrahms developed…
-
Center paper finalist for Cozzarelli Prize
The paper “Climate presses and pulses mediate the decline of a migratory predator”,” published last year ” is the finalist for the Cozzarelli Prize in the category Class VI: Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Congrats to former Abrahms Lab postdoc Dr.T. J. Clark-Wolf, Dr. Dee Boersma, Dr. Ginger A. Rebstock, and Dr. Briana Abrahms!…