once believed the focuses of her doctoral and postdoctoral work were completely different. 

She completed her doctorate in Botswana, studying how humans were changing large carnivore behavior. After earning her degree, she researched whale migration at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But while Abrahms was with NOAA, a historic heat wave off the West Coast was associated with an unprecedented rise in whales getting tangled in fishing gear. The event reminded her of studying in Botswana, when an extreme drought led to predators killing more livestock. 

“It struck me as important that you have two really different systems, yet in both cases an extreme climate event led to a change in human-wildlife interactions,” said Abrahms, an associate professor of biology at the 91̽��.

Those experiences led Abrahms to study how climate change is affecting human-wildlife interactions and increasing conflict around the world — from polar bear attacks on people to elephant destruction of agricultural areas. Her areas of expertise made her the ideal choice for keynote speaker at the held in Botswana in January.

Abrahms offered a global perspective on how climate change is impacting human-wildlife conflict while also providing specific insight on southern Africa, since she has worked in Botswana since 2011. The roundtable was hosted by the National Assembly of Botswana in partnership with through its program.

“It was really gratifying,” Abrahms said. “As a scientist, we’re often putting papers out and not knowing what reach they will have. You never really know where they’re going to go, if they’re going to go anywhere. To be featured so prominently in this intergovernmental parliamentary workshop was a career highlight.”

The roundtable brought together parliamentarians from Botswana, other African nations, the European Union, and beyond, alongside government officials, civil society leaders, local community representatives, conservation experts and international partners. Attendees focused on identifying solutions to human-wildlife conflicts while ensuring that the interests of citizens, local communities, ecotourism operators and wildlife advocates are reflected in policy.

Abrahms’ speech addressed the global impacts of climate change on human-wildlife coexistence.

She discussed increasing news reports of human-animal conflict, like kangaroos mobbing areas in Australia during droughts, and increased alligator attacks due to hurricanes in South Carolina. Previous research from Abrahms and her team revealed that the warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Another of her studies found that the overlap between humans and animals will increase substantially across much of the planet in less than 50 years due to human population growth and climate change. 

“These issues are definitely getting more attention and when I gave this talk, it resonated,” Abrhams said. “Afterward, there was a panel featuring different parliament members and every single one of them had their own stories of climate increasing conflict in their countries, whether it was from a hurricane or a drought or a heat wave.”

Despite the wide variety of animal species and climate events — floods and hurricanes in Sri Lanka, droughts in Botswana and more — Abrahms was struck by how frequently climate change exacerbated these problems. She was heartened, though, by how many people from around the world came together to share experiences, success stories and challenges.

Some national-level policy recommendations that came out of the roundtable included predictable compensation and insurance mechanisms for when human-wildlife conflicts occur. Experts also suggested land-use planning that recognizes wildlife corridors as well as human needs. Among the other ideas: Investment in community resilience and climate-smart livelihoods, parliamentary oversight and a wildlife coexistence fund. 

Public outreach is also an important piece, Abrahms said.

“That would help people prepare and hopefully prevent some of these conflicts from occurring,” Abrahms said. “Governmental fiscal planning also could help by anticipating that there will be increased strain on a system and extra money could be put into a fund for use during extreme climate events.”

Abrahms left the roundtable impressed with how much the attendees genuinely cared about the environment, as well as their interest in learning from each other and about her work.

“It was a very grounding experience,” Abrahms said, “and it was nice to be part of a policy-oriented audience. There is a huge amount of money and resources and personnel and expertise aimed at alleviating these problems. In that respect, it was uplifting.”

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

According to the fossil record, cetaceans — whales, dolphins and their relatives — evolved from four-legged land mammals that returned to the oceans beginning some 50 million years ago. Today, their descendants are threatened by a different land-based mammal that has also returned to the sea: humans.

Thousands of whales are injured or killed each year after being struck by ships, particularly the large container vessels that ferry 80% of the world’s traded goods across the oceans. Collisions are the leading cause of death worldwide for large whale species. Yet global data on ship strikes of whales are hard to come by — impeding efforts to protect vulnerable whale species. A new study led by the 91̽�� has for the first time quantified the risk for whale-ship collisions worldwide for four geographically widespread ocean giants that are threatened by shipping: blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales.

In a published online Nov. 21 in Science, researchers report that global shipping traffic overlaps with about 92% of these whale species’ ranges.

“This translates to ships traveling thousands of times the distance to the moon and back within these species’ ranges each and every year, and this problem is only projected to increase as global trade grows in the coming decades,” said senior author , a 91̽��assistant professor of biology and researcher with the .

“Whale-ship collisions have typically only been studied at a local or regional level — like off the east and west coasts of the continental U.S., and patterns of risk remain unknown for large areas,” said lead author Anna Nisi, a 91̽��postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels. “Our study is an attempt to fill those knowledge gaps and understand the risk of ship strikes on a global level. It’s important to understand where these collisions are likely to occur because there are some really simple interventions that can substantially reduce collision risk.”

The team found that only about 7% of areas at highest risk for whale-ship collisions have any measures in place to protect whales from this threat. These measures include speed reductions, both mandatory and voluntary, for ships crossing waters that overlap with whale migration or feeding areas.

“As much as we found cause for concern, we also found some big silver linings,” said Abrahms. “For example, implementing management measures across only an additional 2.6% of the ocean’s surface would protect all of the highest-risk collision hotspots we identified.”

“Trade-offs between industrial and conservation outcomes are not usually this optimal,” said co-author , a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of California, Santa Cruz. “Oftentimes industrial activities must be greatly limited to achieve conservation goals, or vice versa. In this case, there is a potentially large conservation benefit to whales for not much cost to the shipping industry.”

Those highest-risk areas for the four whale species included in the study lie largely along coastal areas in the Mediterranean, portions of the Americas, southern Africa and parts of Asia.

The international team behind the study, which includes researchers across five continents, looked at the waters where these four whale species live, feed and migrate by pooling data from disparate sources — including government surveys, sightings by members of the public, tagging studies and even whaling records. The team collected some 435,000 unique whale sightings. They then combined this novel database with information on the courses of 176,000 cargo vessels from 2017 to 2022 — tracked by each ship’s automatic identification system and processed using an algorithm from Global Fishing Watch — to identify where whales and ships are most likely to meet.

The study uncovered regions already known to be high-risk areas for ship strikes: North America’s Pacific coast, Panama, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean Sea. But it also identified understudied regions at high risk for whale-ship collisions, including southern Africa; South America along the coasts of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Ecuador; the Azores; and East Asia off the coasts of China, Japan and South Korea.

The team found that mandatory measures to reduce whale-ship collisions were very rare, overlapping just 0.54% of blue whale hotspots and 0.27% of humpback hotspots, and not overlapping any fin or sperm whale hotspots. Though many collision hotspots fell within marine protected areas, these preserves often lack speed limits for vessels, as they were largely established to curb fishing and industrial pollution.

For all four species the vast majority of hotspots for whale-ship strikes — more than 95% — hugged coastlines, falling within a nation’s exclusive economic zone. That means that each country could implement its own protection measures in coordination with the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization.

“From the standpoint of conservation, the fact that most high-risk areas lie within exclusive economic zones is actually encouraging,” said Nisi. “It means individual countries have the ability to protect the riskiest areas.”

Of the limited measures now in place, most are along the Pacific coast of North America and in the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to speed reduction, other options to reduce whale-ship strikes include changing vessel routings away from where whales are located, or creating alert systems to notify authorities and mariners when whales are nearby.

“Lowering vessel speed in hotspots also carries additional benefits, such as reducing underwater noise pollution, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and cutting air pollution, which helps people living in coastal areas,” said Nisi.

The authors hope their global study could spur local or regional research to map out the hotspot zones in finer detail, inform advocacy efforts and consider the impact of climate change, which will change both whale and ship distributions as sea ice melts and ecosystems shift.

“Protecting whales from the impact of ship strikes is a huge global challenge. We’ve seen the benefits of slowing ships down at local scales through programs like ‘’ in California. Scaling up such programs will require a concerted effort by conservation organizations, governments and shipping companies,” said co-author Jono Wilson, director of ocean science at the California Chapter of , which helped identify the need for this study and secured its funding. “Whales play a critical role in marine ecosystems. Through this study we have measurable insights into ship-collision hotspots and risk and where we need to focus to make the most impact.”

Co-authors on the study are , a research scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia; research scientists Callie Leiphardt and Rachel Rhodes, and professor , all at the University of California, Santa Barbara; , research ecologist with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center; , associate vice president, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, New England Aquarium; the UW’s , professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, and , a research scientist with the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels; , professor at the Universidade do Vale do Itajaí in Brazil; senior research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective; data scientist , chief scientist and senior manager with Global Fishing Watch; research scientists Lauren Dares and Chloe Robinson with Ocean Wise; with Oceanswell in Sri Lanka and the University of Western Australia; with Carleton University; biologist with the British Antarctic Survey; , emeritus research scientist with the University of Rhode Island; Russell Leaper with the International Fund for Animal Welfare; Ekaterina Ovsyanikova at the University of Queensland; and Simone Panigada with the in Italy.

The research was funded by The Nature Conservancy, NOAA, the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, the National Marine Fisheries Service, Oceankind, Bloomberg Philanthropy, Heritage Expeditions, Ocean Park Hong Kong, National Geographic, NEID Global and the Schmidt Foundation.

For more information, contact Nisi at anisi@uw.edu and Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

The overlap between humans and animals will increase substantially across much of the planet in less than 50 years due to human population growth and climate change, according to a collaborative study by scientists at the University of Michigan, the 91̽�� and University College London. The was published Aug. 21 in Science Advances.

By 2070, the overlap between humans and more than 22,000 vertebrate species will rise across nearly 57% of Earth’s land, according to the team.

“This gives us an early warning of where we may expect to see future increases in habitat degradation, human-wildlife conflict or biodiversity loss,” said co-author , a 91̽��assistant professor of biology in the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels. “We especially need to pay attention to forested areas, which is where we project much of the increase in human-wildlife overlap to occur.”

In contrast, less than 12% of land globally will see a decrease in habitat sharing between people and other animals.

Understanding where the overlap is likely to occur — and which animals are likely to interact with humans in specific areas — will help urban planners, conservationists and countries meet their international conservation commitments.

To calculate future human-wildlife overlap, the researchers created an index that combined estimates of where people are likely to live with the spatial distributions of 22,374 species of land-based amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

“The index we created showed that the majority of global lands will experience increases in human-wildlife overlap, and this increasing overlap is the result of the expansion of human population much more so than changes in species distributions caused by climate change,” said lead author Deqiang Ma, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan.

For the index, they drew information about the spatial distribution of vertebrates from previously published data, which also forecasts where species will live based on their ecological and climactic niches. Their estimates of where people are likely to live were based on projections of economic development, global society and demographics.

“In many places around the world, more people will interact with wildlife in the coming decades, and often those wildlife communities will comprise different kinds of animals than the ones that live there now,” said senior author , an associate professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan. “This means that all sorts of novel interactions, good and bad, between people and wildlife will emerge in the near future.”

The researchers found that areas that have high levels of human-wildlife overlap today — and are predicted to see high overlap in 2070 — are largely concentrated in regions where human population density is already high, including China and India. In addition, they project that human-wildlife overlap will increase in forested areas, particularly in Africa and South America, two continents with high levels of biodiversity threatened by human activity. They predict that median species richness — the variety of species in a given area — will decrease across most forests on both continents.

But preserving biodiversity has real benefits, according to the study. For example, part of their analysis, which was led by Ma, looked at birds that eat insects in agricultural areas and examined where those birds will go under climate change. They found that more than two-thirds of the croplands that will likely experience an increase of human-wildlife overlap by 2070 will see a decline in bird species that can help reduce crop pests. Studies have also shown that scavengers such as vultures and hyenas play critical roles by clearing waste from urban areas and other landscapes, which reduces the prevalence of rabies, anthrax, bovine tuberculosis and other diseases.

“This research can help us identify which human communities, wildlife species and geographies are likely to feel the compounded effects of future societal and environmental changes,” said Abrahms. “For example, not only will certain human communities have to contend with the direct stressors of climate change, but they will also have to contend with shifting human-wildlife interactions as a result. The same is true for wildlife communities.”

Future conservation strategies will have to evolve, especially in regions that previously haven’t seen much human settlement, according to the researchers. In the past, a core conservation strategy was to establish protected areas where human access is restricted. This is becoming harder to implement because there are fewer such places.

“There’s also a significant environmental justice argument around the validity of telling communities that may have lived in a certain area for generations that they have to move,” said Carter. “Our study suggests that with more areas of the world expected to be shared both by people and wildlife, conservation planning will have to get more creative and inclusive.”

Conservationists will need to engage local communities to build interest in helping improve the conservation process. This process may include establishing habitat corridors to connect protected areas or other conservation innovations, such as establishing temporary protected areas during critical periods for wildlife, like breeding seasons.

“We care a lot about which areas can support populations of endangered species, like tigers, and how human communities interact with these species,” said Carter. “In some places it’s going to be really hard to do everything at once: to grow crops and have urban areas and protect these species and their habitats. But if we can start planning now, we have a lot of tools to help us promote sustainable coexistence.”

Co-authors on the study are Jacob Allgeier and Brian Weeks with the University of Michigan, and with University College London. The research was funded by the University of Michigan, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Royal Society.

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

Adapted from a by the University of Michigan.

Recent recognition for the 91̽�� includes a Rising Star Award, honors for distinguished ornithological work and a Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.

Karen Thomas-Brown receives Rising Star Award

, 91̽��associate dean of diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) for the College of Engineering, was given the in March by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.

NADOHE’s Inclusive Excellence Awards recognize and honor achievements and contributions to guide higher education toward inclusivity and institutional transformation through research, leadership or service.

“This award is a significant acknowledgment that the body of work we pursue in the Office of Inclusive Excellence is on point as it informs the policies and practices of the college as a whole and is relevant to research,” Thomas-Brown said.

The Rising Star honoree is a NADOHE member who has been a chief or senior diversity officer for at least three years but no more than 10 years. A nomination statement details the person’s contributions to advance the understanding of DEI in higher education.

Thomas-Brown leads the College of Engineering’s efforts to be an accessible, welcoming and inclusive community. The award recognizes her contributions to advancing DEI initiatives, including developing best practices and guidelines and working to implement programs that increase participation of underserved groups.

Thomas-Brown holds a doctorate in geography from the University of West Indies and certificates in DEI, change management and leadership from Cornell University.

Professor of biology honored for ‘distinguished ornithological work’

, 91̽��professor of biology, received the British Ornithological Union’s  during the Pacific Seabird Group’s annual conference banquet in February. BOU Council awards honor an individual’s distinguished ornithological work.

“To have the British honor me is high praise,” Boersma said. “I just hope we can reduce the impact of people on the natural world.”

Boersma was selected for excellence in scientific research, practical conservation, scientific monitoring and dissemination of science for public awareness. The committee particularly noted her devotion to documenting varying aspects of penguins’ lives and her contribution to understanding the conservation of all species.

Boersma directs the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and is a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature SSC Penguin Specialist Group. As a scientific fellow for the Wildlife Conservation Society, she also leads research on Magellanic Penguins.

Affiliate professor receives Gold Medal Award

, 91̽��affiliate professor of psychology and gender, women & sexuality studies, received a from The American Psychological Foundation (APF). The award recognizes work that is impactful, innovative and transformational.

Freyd is known as a pioneer in the fields of trauma psychology and institutional courage. An activist in the realm of sexual violence, Freyd is also a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Oregon and the founder and president of the Center for Institutional Courage. Her work has influenced approaches, policy frameworks, legal considerations and social attitudes.

“I am grateful for this award,” Freyd said in an APF release. “I am also hopeful that this acknowledgement will help in our efforts to investigate and prevent betrayal trauma and institutional betrayal while discovering how to nurture institutional courage.”

91̽��study named finalist for Cozzarelli Prize

A study from the 91̽��was named a finalist for the 2023 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , which “acknowledges papers that reflect scientific excellence and originality.”

The paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was written by lead author , assistant professor at Utah State and former 91̽��postdoctoral researcher in the Abrahms Lab; senior author , assistant professor of biology; , professor of biology; and , research scientists/engineer of biology, using long-term data collected by the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels.

The paper focuses on how climate change will reshape ecosystems worldwide through short-term, extreme events and long-term changes. Ecologists call the short-term events “pulses” and the long-term changes “presses.” The study shows how different presses and pulses impacted Magellanic penguins — a migratory marine predator — over nearly four decades at their historically largest breeding site in Punta Tombo, Argentina.

“For conservation to be most effective, we need to know where, when and how to apply our limited resources,” Abrahms told 91̽��News last year. “Information generated by this study tells us which climate effects we need to worry about and which ones we don’t — and therefore can help us focus on measures that we know will have a positive impact.”

Su-In Lee receives Ho-Am Prize in Engineering

, 91̽��professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, was selected as the 2024 Samsung Ho-Am Prize Laureate in Engineering for her pioneering contributions to the field of explainable artificial intelligence.

Established in 1990, the honors people of Korean heritage who have contributed to academics, the arts and social development, or who have furthered the welfare of humanity in their respective field.

Lee is the first woman to receive the engineering prize.

Lee pioneered the innovative SHAP framework, revolutionizing the ability to interpret the results of machine learning models, along with subsequent algorithms. Her extensive contributions span foundational AI, computational molecular biology and clinical medicine.

Through her advancements in explainable AI technology, Lee has played a pivotal role in the development of clinical AI systems capable of predicting and elucidating various diagnoses and outcomes. Furthermore, her work has led to significant AI-driven discoveries aimed at enhancing our understanding of the origins and treatment of complex disease, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

“This is truly an extraordinary honor for me, and I’m profoundly grateful for the recognition,” Lee said. “Among countless deserving researchers, I feel deeply humbled to have been selected. Receiving an award of this magnitude entails not just privilege but also a significant responsibility. One of the most fulfilling aspects of my role as a faculty member and scientist is being able to serve as an inspiration for young individuals. As AI continues to revolutionize both science and society, my hope is that this achievement will inspire others to tackle crucial challenges aimed at enhancing science and health for all.”

, a 91̽�� assistant professor of biology and researcher with the 91̽��, has been named a 2023 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering, according to an Oct. 16 from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. As one of 20 new fellows across the country, Abrahms, who holds the Boersma Endowed Chair in Natural History and Conservation, will receive $875,000 over five years for her research.

Abrahms studies how wildlife across the globe are changing behaviors in response to human-caused environmental change. Her research probes both the specific causes and consequences of behavioral changes, like altering migration routes, pursuing different food sources and changing the timing of important life events, such as breeding. She is particularly interested in how climate change is bringing large animals — from whales to lions — into more frequent contact with people. Abrahms and her team have shown that climate change is increasing human-wildlife conflicts globally.

“While we know that climate change is having profound impacts on both ecological and human communities, there is very little understanding of how these effects interact with one another,” said Abrahms. “The Packard Fellowship will allow my research group to push the boundaries of ecology to understand how species’ responses to environmental change are creating unforeseen feedbacks in the complex socio-ecological systems in which we all live.”

For her research, Abrahms incorporates data from diverse sources — including government databases, studies by other research groups and field studies by her own team. Some examples include:

• Using GPS collars to track the movements of large predators in Botswana, including African wild dogs and lions, to understand how environmental conditions shape their behavior and interactions
• Analyzing large, complex datasets on predator demographics collected by the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels that show the impacts of climate change, such as four decades of data on Magellanic penguins in Argentina
• Analyzing data on specific types of human-wildlife interactions, such as whale-ship collisions off the U.S. West Coast, and how these are affected by changing environmental conditions

By analyzing these diverse sources of data and modeling animal behavior, Abrahms and her team have started to pinpoint the causes and consequences of wildlife responses to environmental change and open the door to developing mitigation efforts. For example, Abrahms collaborated on a project to create an online tool that alerts shipping vessels in California’s Santa Barbara Channel and the San Francisco Bay Area if there are whales nearby so that they may avoid collisions.

Studying animals’ different ecosystems can also help scientists try to understand which species may be able to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions, which ones may struggle, and why. These studies can alert conservationists to species or ecosystems in need of interventions against specific climate change hazards.

More recently, Abrahms and her team have started to develop new methods for sorting and analyzing large datasets. One project, for example, uses AI tools to help classify behavior from “bio-loggers” — collars that collect behavioral data — as part of ongoing efforts to study climate change impacts on large carnivores in Botswana. Her group is also leading expanded efforts to map whale-ship collision risk globally, especially as whale migration routes and feeding behaviors shift due to climate change.

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

Research on the impacts of climate change often considers its effects on people separately from impacts on ecosystems. But a new study is showing just how intertwined we are with our environment by linking our warming world to a global rise in conflicts between humans and wildlife.

The research, led by scientists at the 91̽��’s and Feb. 27 in Nature Climate Change, reveals that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts.

“We found evidence of conflicts between people and wildlife exacerbated by climate change on six continents, in five different oceans, in terrestrial systems, in marine systems, in freshwater systems – involving mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and even invertebrates,” said lead author , a 91̽��assistant professor of biology. “Although each individual case has its own array of different causes and effects, these climate-driven conflicts are really ubiquitous.”

To identify trends, the team pored over published, peer-reviewed incidents of human-wildlife conflicts and identified cases that were linked specifically to the effects of climate change. These include both short-term climate events — such as a drought — as well as longer-term changes. Warming in the Arctic, for example, is leading to loss of sea ice which has left polar bears short of food. They increasingly travel on land, sometimes entering human settlements and attacking people, as a in Alaska illustrates.

The new study shows that climate shifts can drive conflicts by altering animal habitats — like sea ice for polar bears — as well as the timing of events, wildlife behaviors and resource availability. It also showed that people are changing their behaviors and locations in response to climate change in ways that increase conflicts. Other examples of the effects of short- and long-term climate events include:

• Torrential floods in Tanzania led to more lion attacks after their usual prey migrated away from floodplains.
• Higher air temperatures in Australia triggered more aggressive behavior in eastern brown snakes, leading to more incidents of snake bites.
• Wildfires in Sumatra, Indonesia — triggered by El Nino — drove Asian elephants and tigers out of reserves and into human-inhabited areas, leading to at least one death.
• Disruption of terrestrial food webs during La Nina events in the Americas drove black bears in New Mexico and foxes in Chile into human settlements in search of food.
• Warmer air and ocean temperatures in a severe El Nino led to an increase in shark attacks in South Africa.

Most cases of human-wildlife conflict linked to climate involve a shift in resources — not just for wildlife, but also for people.

A majority of cases on land also involved a change in precipitation, which will continue to be affected by climate change. Many resulted in human deaths or injuries, as well as property damage.

In 2009, for example, a severe drought struck the western part of Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro Region. This reduced food supplies for African elephants, which in turn entered local fields to graze on crops — at times destroying 2 to 3 acres daily. Local farmers, whose livelihoods were directly threatened by the drought, at times resorted to retaliatory killings of elephants to try to mitigate these raids.

“Identifying and understanding this link between human-wildlife conflicts is not only a conservation issue,” said Abrahms. “It is also a social justice and human safety issue.”

These types of conflicts are likely to rise as climate change intensifies, particularly as mass migrations of people and wildlife increase and resources shift.

But, it doesn’t have to be all bad news.

“One major motivation in studying the link between climate change and human-wildlife conflict is finding solutions,” said Abrahms. “As we learn about specific incidents, we can identify patterns and trends — and come up with interventions to try to address or lessen these conflicts.”

Some interventions may be as simple as public-awareness campaigns, such as advising residents of the American Southwest during La Nina years to carry bear spray on a hike. Governments can also plan for times when extreme climate events will bring people and wildlife into closer contact. Botswana, for example, has funds in place to compensate herders and ranchers for drought-induced attacks by wildlife on livestock, often in exchange for pledges not to engage in retaliatory killings of wildlife.

“We have effective drought forecasts now. So, governments can engage in fiscal planning for mitigating conflicts ahead of time,” said Abrahms. “Instead of a ‘rainy day’ fund, have a ‘dry day’ fund.”

To Abrahms, one success story of note lies in the waters of the eastern Pacific. In 2014 and 2015, a record number of humpback and blue whales became ensnared in fishing lines off the California coast. Research later showed that an extreme marine heat wave had pushed whales closer to shore, following their primary food sources. California regulators now adjust the start and end of each fishing season based on climate and ocean conditions in the Pacific — delaying the season if whales and fishing gear are likely to come into close contact.

“These examples show us that once you know the root causes of a conflict, you can design interventions to help both people and wildlife,” said Abrahms. “We can change.”

Co-authors on the paper are 91̽��postdoctoral researchers T.J. Clark-Wolf, Anna Nisi and Kasim Rafiq; 91̽��doctoral students Erik Johansson and Leigh West; Neil Carter, an associate professor at the University of Michigan; Kaitlyn Gaynor, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia; and Alex McInturff, 91̽��assistant professor of environmental and forest sciences.

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu. See a related feature story about Abrahms’ research.

Climate change will reshape ecosystems worldwide through two types of climate events: short-term, extreme events — like a heat wave — and long-term changes, like a shift in ocean currents. Ecologists call the short-term events “pulses,” and the long-term changes “presses.”

Presses and pulses will likely have different effects on animal species. But how? And how will animals respond? Answering these questions is no easy feat because individual events can have dramatically divergent impacts on an animal species. Yet understanding the effects of presses and pulses is essential as conservationists and policymakers try to preserve ecosystems and safeguard biodiversity.

Researchers at the 91̽�� have discovered how different presses and pulses impacted Magellanic penguins — a migratory marine predator — over nearly four decades at their historically largest breeding site in Punta Tombo, Argentina. In a paper published the week of Jan. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team from the UW’s reports that, though individual presses and pulses impacted penguins in a variety of ways, both were equally important for the future survival of the penguin population. They also found that these types of climate changes, taken together, are leading to an overall population decline at this particular site.

“We found that penguin survival doesn’t rest solely — or even largely — on one or a few climate effects,” said lead author T.J. Clark-Wolf, a 91̽��postdoctoral researcher in biology and center scientist. “Instead, many different presses and pulses impact penguin reproduction and survival over time.”

The study analyzed data collected at Punta Tombo from 1982 to 2019 by co-author , founder of the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and a 91̽��professor of biology, and collaborators. The data include:

• survival and reproductive success for nearly 54,000 penguins at the site, which historically is where hundreds of thousands of Magellanic penguins have come to breed each summer
• climate conditions during each breeding season
• ocean conditions off the coast of Punta Tombo, where adults feed during the breeding season and bring food back to the nest to feed their chicks
• offshore ocean conditions along the coast of South America, where adults and juveniles feed when migrating outside of the breeding season

Clark-Wolf and senior author , a 91̽��assistant professor of biology, folded these data into an integrated population model that parsed out the effects of separate presses and pulses on penguin survival over time. They found that different climate effects had distinct impacts on the Punta Tombo population. For example, heat waves — a climate pulse — have a detrimental effect on the population by killing both adults and chicks, as illustrated by a 2019 single-day heat wave at Punta Tombo that killed more than 350 penguins. A climate press, increased rainfall at the site, also negatively impacted the population, because storms during the breeding season kill chicks due to exposure.

The gradual weakening of the plume of silt expelled into the ocean by the Río de la Plata, the second largest river basin in South America, is one press that positively affected penguin survival. This press impacts the penguins’ winter feeding waters off the coast of northern Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Past research by , a co-author on the new study and a 91̽��research scientist, has indicated that a weaker plume may make it easier for penguins, particularly females, to catch enough food each winter and return to the breeding site in prime condition.

But the positive effects of a weakening plume could not overcome the negative effects of other climate events at Punta Tombo, which over nearly four decades has become warmer and wetter. The number of breeding pairs at the site has declined from a high of approximately 400,000 in the early 1980s to about 150,000 in 2019.

“This colony will be 100 years old in 2024, but we finished another on-the-ground survey in late October at Punta Tombo and its numbers continue to decline,” said Boersma. “The penguins are instead moving north to be closer to their food.”

Surveys have reported that Magellanic penguins are establishing other breeding sites farther north on the South American coast in search of better foraging opportunities.

Understanding how these presses and pulses shape this population is crucial for informing conservation efforts, the researchers said.

“For conservation to be most effective, we need to know where, when and how to apply our limited resources,” said Abrahms. “Information generated by this study tells us which climate effects we need to worry about and which ones we don’t — and therefore can help us focus on measures that we know will have a positive impact.”

The decades of data faithfully collected at Punta Tombo made it possible for the team to consider the effects of long-term climate changes and extreme events in combination, and as a result, to better predict how climate will impact this population in the future. It is this same approach, they believe, that can help conservationists and scientists understand how climate shifts will shape other long-lived animal species across our warming globe.

Fieldwork over the years at Punta Tombo has been funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society; the ExxonMobil Foundation; the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation; the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund; the Chase, Cunningham, CGMK, Offield, Peach, Thorne, Tortuga and Kellogg Foundations; the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science at the UW; the Friends of the Penguins fund; and private to the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels.

For more information, contact Clark-Wolf at tc130053@uw.edu and Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

As climate change alters environments across the globe, scientists have discovered that in response, many species are shifting the timing of major life events, such as reproduction. With an earlier spring thaw, for example, some flowers bloom sooner. But scientists don’t know whether making these significant changes in life history will ultimately help a species survive or lead to bigger problems.

A study published the week of June 27 in the shows for the first time that a species of large carnivore has made a major change to its life history in response to a changing climate — and may be worse off for it.

A team led by researchers at the 91̽��, in collaboration with Botswana Predator Conservation, a local NGO, analyzed field observations and demographic data from 1989 to 2020 for populations of the — Lycaon pictus. They discovered that, over a 30-year period, the animals shifted their average birthing dates later by 22 days, an adaptation that allowed them to match the birth of new litters with the coolest temperatures in early winter. But as a result of this significant shift, fewer pups survived their most vulnerable period because temperatures during their critical post-birth “denning period” increased over the same time period, threatening the population of this already endangered species.

This study shows that African wild dogs, which are distantly related to wolves and raise young cooperatively in packs, may be caught in a “phenological trap,” according to lead author , a 91̽��assistant professor of biology and researcher with the . In a phenological trap, a species changes the timing of a major life event in response to an environmental cue — but, that shift proves maladaptive due to unprecedented environmental conditions like climate change.

“It is an unfortunate ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’ situation,” said Abrahms. “African wild dogs shifted birthing dates later in order to keep pace with optimal cool temperatures, but this led to hotter temperatures during the denning period once those pups were born, which ultimately lowered survival.”

The study demonstrates that species on high “trophic levels” in ecosystems — like large predators — can be just as sensitive to climate change as other species, something that scientists were uncertain about. Other research has shown that long-term warming can trigger phenological shifts, or shifts in the timing of major life events, in “primary producer” species like plants and “primary consumers” that feed on plants, including many birds and insects. But, until now, scientists had never documented a climate-driven phenological shift in a large mammalian carnivore. Abrahms and her colleagues show that large predators can indeed exhibit strong responses to long-term climate change, even though predators are “farther removed” up the food chain.

For this study, the team analyzed more than three decades of data that they and collaborators collected on 60 packs of African wild dogs that live across a more than 1,000 square-mile region of northern Botswana. This species breeds annually each winter. After birth, pups spend about 3 months with their mother at the den before beginning to travel and hunt with the pack.

Abrahms and her colleagues analyzed the dates that African wild dog mothers gave birth to their litters each year, which is how they determined that adults gradually delayed breeding by about one week per decade over the 30-year study period.

“Although most animal species are advancing their life history events earlier in the year with climate change, this finding represents a rare instance of a species delaying its life history, and at a rate twice as high as the average rate of change observed across animal species”, said Jeremy Cohen, a researcher at Yale University and the Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, who was not involved in the study.

Such a large shift is likely due to the rapid pace of warming in the region, and because African wild dogs have evolved to breed within a narrow “thermal window,” according to Abrahms.

The team used long-term demographic data to calculate how many pups survived the denning period each year. They discovered a correlation between temperatures during the denning period and survival: Warmer denning periods led to fewer pups recruiting to packs at the end of winter, which indicated that fewer pups survived the denning period.

Average daily maximum temperatures in the study period rose by about 1.6 degrees Celsius, or 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit, over 30 years. Over the same time frame, annual maximum temperatures spiked by 3.8 degrees Celsius — just over 6 degrees Fahrenheit.

The team could not have come to its unexpected conclusions without those decades of detailed field observations led by Botswana Predator Conservation, Abrahms said.

“We could only conduct this study because of the existence of this unique, long-term dataset for a large predator, which is really rare,” said Abrahms. “It shows the value for this kind of data in studying how climate change will impact ecosystems.”

The study area in northern Botswana is part of the largest continuous habitat for African wild dogs, which are threatened by habitat fragmentation and loss, disease and conflicts with people. The International Union for Conservation of Nature that there are only about 1,400 mature adults left in the wild.

“Large predators play extraordinarily important roles in ecosystems, but we still have a lot to learn about the implications of climate change for these animals,” said Abrahms. “Big climate-driven shifts like the one we found may be more widespread in top predators than originally thought, so we hope our findings will spur new climate-change research on other predator populations around the planet.”

Co-authors on the study are Kasim Rafiq, a 91̽��postdoctoral researcher in biology; Neil Jordan with the University of New South Wales; and J.W. McNutt with Botswana Predator Conservation. The research was funded by numerous public and private donors over the thirty-year study period.

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

Two faculty members at the 91̽�� have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, are , an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, and , an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.

Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics — the fellowships honor those early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.

The 118 were selected in coordination with the research community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in their field. Each fellow will receive $75,000 to apply toward research endeavors.

This year’s fellows come from 51 institutions across the United States and Canada, spanning fields from evolutionary biology to data science.

Abrahms is an assistant professor of biology and holds the inaugural Boersma Endowed Chair in Natural History and Conservation. 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 across marine and terrestrial systems. In addition to advancing basic ecological theory, Abrahms is passionate about developing data-driven, publicly available tools that bolster capacity to conserve the natural world.

“How do animals make decisions in the face of global change, and what are the consequences of those decisions for individual fitness, populations and interactions with other animals and humans? This is a big question my group is working to answer, which can inform both biodiversity conservation and human sustainability,” Abrahms said. “We’re becoming increasingly interested in understanding how species responses to environmental change can have unanticipated and often negative consequences for social-ecological systems so that we can reduce unwanted outcomes in the future.”

Tsvetkov is an assistant professor in the Allen School. She engages in multidisciplinary research at the nexus of machine learning, computational linguistics and the social sciences to develop practical solutions to natural language processing, or NLP, problems that combine sophisticated learning and modeling methods with insights into human languages and the people who speak them.

“The huge success of contemporary AI-powered NLP technology stems from the fact that it has matured enough to effectively serve and interact with humans. However, there is still a technological divide: The rich ecosystem of language-aware applications — machine translation, question answering, educational applications, summarization — are well-equipped to serve privileged users. But those same applications are systematically biased in ways that render them less useful for millions of other users, including speakers of low-resource languages or representatives of disadvantaged groups discriminated by gender, race, age or ethnicity,” Tsvetkov said. “The long-term goal of my research has been to bridge this divide, and to develop effective, accessible and equitable language technologies, serving all users, across populations, cultures and language boundaries.”

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu or Tsvetkov at yuliats@cs.washington.edu.

Some wildlife are stuck in their ways.

Like humans, wild animals often return to the same places to eat, walk on the same paths to travel and use the same places to raise their young.

A team led by researchers at the 91̽�� and the University of Wyoming has reviewed the scientific literature and found that, while this “consistent” behavior may be beneficial when environmental conditions don’t change very fast, those benefits may not be realized in the ever-changing world dominated by humans. The research was Jan. 11 in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Ecologists use the term “site fidelity” to describe the behavior of animals that are stuck in their ways. Site fidelity is the tendency to return to previously visited locations and is common across many species, from fish and birds to mammals and insects. Think salmon returning to their natal streams to spawn, or birds returning year after year to the same nest site — site fidelity is all around us in nature.

As animals become familiar with a place, site fidelity can help them know where to find good food or hiding spots from predators, and can help them move efficiently to and from these resources. However, the authors uncovered an emerging theme in the scientific literature.

“Animals that have strong site fidelity are having a tough time adjusting to the novel landscapes that are showing up around them as a result of humans,” said , an assistant professor of zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming.

Merkle and , an assistant professor of biology at the 91̽��, are co-lead authors on the paper. The authors’ broader message suggests that, when confronted by human disturbances or climate change, animals with strong site fidelity may not survive or reproduce as well as animals that have more flexible behaviors. When populations consist of many site-faithful individuals, this can lead to population declines.

In Wyoming, for example, large natural gas fields have been developed in several mule deer winter ranges. Although mule deer can make small shifts in their range to avoid infrastructure, they remain faithful to the same general area rather than abandoning it entirely. Their continued use of those degraded areas following development can have negative consequences. — led by co-author Hall Sawyer of Western Ecosystems Technology, Inc. in Laramie, Wyoming — researchers found a 40% decline in the mule deer population following large-scale energy development in their winter range.

Research by Abrahms and co-author , a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, illustrates how this trend is also playing out as a result of climate change. , site fidelity is a winning strategy under normal climate conditions. In typical years, site-faithful seals are better able to find food and put on fat than their more flexible counterparts. But, when abnormal climate conditions like an extreme El Niño cause big changes in the ocean ecosystem, behaviorally flexible seals become the winners, and female seals with strong site fidelity are not able to gain as much valuable fat that they need to reproduce.

“Despite each of us working on very different species from one another, our group came together because we all recognized that there was a clear connection between strong site fidelity and species declines,” said Abrahms, who is also a researcher with the at the 91̽��. “We all thought it was important to call attention to this connection for other researchers and wildlife managers. Recognizing the types of species or behaviors that may suffer most from human-induced environmental change can help develop conservation priorities and actions.”

While the authors’ synthesis provides a grim sketch of the future for species with strong site fidelity, they also provide an upshot.

“While these species appear to be stuck in their ways, many of them also have some unique but subtle ways of dealing with change,” said co-author , an assistant professor of fisheries, wildlife and conservation science at Oregon State University.

Every once in a while, an animal does something new, and it works. While such cases are rare, those “innovators” can be key to persistence in changing landscapes.

“We just have to be patient and make sure populations don’t crash before such innovators come along,” said Armstrong.

The authors conclude with a number of suggestions for researchers and practitioners. First, long-term monitoring is key to seeing how individuals and populations respond to change. Second, they suggest that biologists should not expect animals to always use and find the best habitats. This is especially important for restoring new habitat areas, which may not work all that well for species with strong site fidelity because they may not “find” these restored habitats.

Because of this, the authors thirdly suggest that conservation of species with high site fidelity focus on protection and restoration of highly used sites, rather than off-site mitigation.

Additional co-author on the paper is , an associate professor of zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming and assistant leader with the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit.

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu and Merkle at jmerkle@uwyo.edu.

Adapted from a by the University of Wyoming.