Seminar: Ecology and Conservation of Magellanic and Galápagos Penguins in a Changing World

Abstract:

Penguins are charismatic ambassadors for conservation, serve as bellwethers of global change, and their populations are threatened across the Southern Hemisphere. In this seminar, I will share research leveraging long-term field studies, remote sensing, and quantitative tools to understand the impacts of environmental change on the population dynamics and ecological interactions of two South American penguin species. First, I will explore the consequences of climate-driven delays (i.e., phenological shifts) in breeding by Magellanic penguins, examining the interactions between the timing of egg laying, subsequent breeding-season events, and the window of optimal oceanographic conditions. I will then discuss my work with the rare and endangered Galápagos penguin that aims to reveal components of their behavior and demography to inform management efforts. I will share the results of a Bayesian, multistate mark-recapture model developed to estimate survival of Galápagos penguins under varying El Niño/La Niña conditions while accounting for low detection and transience.

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