Research Interests

Even within seemingly homogenous populations, individuals may differ considerably in patterns of movement, habitat selection, and migration. I'm interested in how individual characteristics, such as size, sex, condition, and status, interact with environmental factors to determine the distribution of individuals across the landscape.

Individual movement decisions depend on energy, which means balancing the equation between energy expended and energy gained. During reproduction, this includes providing for the energy needs of offspring. I study how diet quality and availability vary across a fluid marine landscape, and how this variation affects individual habitat use and movements.

Stress levels are closely linked with nutrition. Individuals developing in highly stressful conditions tend to have lower long-term survival and fitness. I am interested in how stress levels during nestling development can be used to understand changes in environmental conditions and predict reproductive success, post-fledging survival, and recruitment rates.

The ability of individuals to respond to changing environments depends on how much flexibility is built into their genetic structure, and how quickly they can adapt complex migratory patterns to new climate conditions. I am interested in how genetic variation contributes to varying migratory decisions of individuals, and whether these decisions are fixed or plastic.

Seabirds in nearshore marine environments are regularly exposed to anthropogenic contaminants, and their wide-ranging movements at the marine-terrestrial interface make them potential vectors for the spread of zoonotic disease. I am interested in understanding how contaminant and pathogen loads vary through space and between individuals, how differences in individual habitat use and exposure scale up to population parameters, and how seabirds can be used to trace and measure levels of marine pollutants and disease.

Academic research and conservation action often run on separate tracks, but each becomes more powerful when they inform one another. I am interested in identifying rapid diagnostic tools for understanding the effects of enviromental disturbances, as well as developing science to guide restoration efforts. I work with managers and agencies to provide research that informs seabird habitat management and creation, risk assessment, and spatial planning.