Recent recognition for the 91探花 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

, 91探花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鈥檚 Inclusive Excellence Awards recognize and honor achievements and contributions to guide higher education toward inclusivity and institutional transformation through research, leadership or service.

鈥淭his 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,鈥� 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鈥檚 contributions to advance the understanding of DEI in higher education.

Thomas-Brown leads the College of Engineering鈥檚 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 鈥榙istinguished ornithological work鈥�

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

鈥淭o have the British honor me is high聽praise,鈥� Boersma said. 鈥淚 just hope we can reduce the impact of聽people on the natural world.鈥�

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鈥� 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

, 91探花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.

鈥淚 am grateful for this award,鈥� Freyd said in an APF release. 鈥淚 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.鈥�

91探花study named finalist for Cozzarelli Prize

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

The paper, published in聽Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was written by lead author聽, assistant professor at Utah State and former 91探花postdoctoral researcher in the Abrahms Lab; senior author聽, assistant professor of biology;聽, professor of biology;聽and聽, research scientists/engineer of biology, using聽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 鈥減ulses鈥� and the long-term changes 鈥減resses.鈥� The study shows how different presses and pulses impacted Magellanic penguins 鈥� a migratory marine predator 鈥� over nearly four decades at their historically largest breeding site in Punta Tombo, Argentina.

鈥淔or conservation to be most effective, we need to know where, when and how to apply our limited resources,鈥� Abrahms told 91探花News last year. 鈥淚nformation generated by this study tells us which climate effects we need to worry about and which ones we don鈥檛 鈥� and therefore can help us focus on measures that we know will have a positive impact.鈥�

Su-In Lee receives Ho-Am Prize in Engineering

, 91探花professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, was selected as the 2024 Samsung Ho-Am Prize Laureate in Engineering聽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.聽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,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淎mong 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.鈥�

Climate change will reshape ecosystems worldwide through two types of climate events: short-term, extreme events 鈥� like a heat wave 鈥� and long-term changes, like a shift in ocean currents. Ecologists call the short-term events 鈥減ulses,鈥� and the long-term changes 鈥減resses.鈥�

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 91探花 have discovered how different presses and pulses impacted Magellanic penguins 鈥� a migratory marine predator 鈥� 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鈥檚 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.

鈥淲e found that penguin survival doesn鈥檛 rest solely 鈥� or even largely 鈥� on one or a few climate effects,鈥� said lead author T.J. Clark-Wolf, a 91探花postdoctoral researcher in biology and center scientist. 鈥淚nstead, many different presses and pulses impact penguin reproduction and survival over time.鈥�

The study analyzed data collected at Punta Tombo from 1982 to 2019 by co-author , founder of the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and a 91探花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 91探花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 鈥� a climate pulse 鈥� 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 R铆o 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 91探花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.

鈥淭his 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,鈥� said Boersma. 鈥淭he penguins are instead moving north to be closer to their food.鈥�

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.

鈥淔or conservation to be most effective, we need to know where, when and how to apply our limited resources,鈥� said Abrahms. 鈥淚nformation generated by this study tells us which climate effects we need to worry about and which ones we don鈥檛 鈥� and therefore can help us focus on measures that we know will have a positive impact.鈥�

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.

In June 2021, an unprecedented heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest and Canada, killing an estimated . On June 28, Seattle reached 108 F 鈥� an all-time high 鈥� while the village of Lytton in British Columbia recorded Canada鈥檚 highest-ever temperature of 121.3 F on June 29, the day before it by a heat-triggered wildfire.

Climate change is expected to bring more such extreme heat events globally, with far-reaching consequences not just for humans, but for wildlife and ecosystems.

In 2019, 91探花 researchers witnessed this in Argentina at one of the world鈥檚 largest breeding colonies for Magellanic penguins. On Jan. 19, temperatures at the site in Punta Tombo, on Argentina鈥檚 southern coast, spiked to 44 C, or 111.2 F, and that was in the shade. As the team reports in a published Jan. 4 in the journal Ornithological Applications, the extreme heat wave killed at least 354 penguins, based on a search for bodies by 91探花researchers in the days following the record high temperature.

鈥淭his extreme event fell near the tail end of the breeding season for Magellanic penguins, so it killed a large number of adults, as well as chicks,鈥� said lead author , a 91探花doctoral student in biology. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first time we鈥檝e recorded a mass mortality event at Punta Tombo connected to extreme temperatures.鈥�

The Jan. 19 heat wave was the highest temperature the researchers have ever recorded at Punta Tombo, where 91探花teams have been studying Magellanic penguins since 1982 under co-author , a 91探花professor of biology. Temperatures at the site during the breeding season typically rise from the 50s F to the low 100s F. In a past season, researchers had previously recorded a shade high of 43 C, or 109.4 F, but that older record was not associated with a mass die-off of penguins, according to Holt.

The extreme heat on Jan. 19 affected adults and chicks differently. Nearly three-quarters of the penguins that died 鈥� 264 鈥� were adults, many of which likely died of dehydration, based on postmortem analyses conducted by the 91探花researchers. They found 27% of adult penguin corpses along paths heading out of the breeding colony to the ocean, where they could get a drink 鈥� penguins have glands that can filter salt out of the water. A journey from the colony to the ocean can stretch up to one kilometer and, at its longest, might take an adult Magellanic 40 minutes to complete. Dead adults were often found on their stomachs with their feet and flippers extended and mouth open, a common panting and cooling pose for Magellanic penguins.

Some sections of Punta Tombo, where thousands of Magellanic penguins gather to breed each austral spring and summer, fared worse than others. In the central section of the colony, about 5% of adults perished. But other sections saw few or no fatalities, indicating that microclimates and access to the ocean, as well as individual health and nutrition, may have influenced survival rates.

91探花researchers have documented past mass mortality events at Punta Tombo linked to severe rainstorms that killed primarily chicks, including one year where deluges killed 50% of the colony鈥檚 recently-hatched offspring. The 2019 heat wave is a particular concern because it led to the loss of a large number of adults in a single event, according to Holt.

鈥淎ny mass die-off like this is a concern,鈥� said Holt. 鈥淏ut what is most concerning about heat-death mortality is that it has the potential to kill a lot of adults. The population viability of long-lived seabirds 鈥� like Magellanic penguins 鈥� relies on long lifespans. Adult Magellanic penguins can live more than 30 years, so they typically have many opportunities to successfully raise chicks. If we鈥檙e losing large numbers of adults from a single event like this, that鈥檚 a major concern.鈥�

Based on examination of a subset of corpses, at least 8 out of 10 of the adults that died were males. That likely reflects the high prevalence of male Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo 鈥� roughly three males to every female 鈥� rather than a differential survivability in extreme heat. The colony鈥檚 skewed sex ratio has grown over time. Research by Boersma鈥檚 group shows that adult females are less likely to return to Punta Tombo to breed, likely because they have more trouble finding enough food in the open ocean outside the breeding season. This has likely contributed to an overall decrease in the size of the colony since the late 1980s.

The remaining 90 fatalities from the Jan. 2019 heat wave were chicks. Based on postmortem analyses, the chicks that perished tended to be well fed and did not show signs of dehydration. They may have died because, with full bellies and small bodies, they could not regulate their body temperatures properly in the extreme heat, according to Holt.

Climate change is expected to produce more extreme weather events of all types globally, though effects will vary by locality. The consequences of this heat wave, though grim, also show scientists the limits that some species can endure.

Boersma is founder of the UW-based , which studies Magellanic penguins and other species that are seen as key indicators of ecosystem health.

鈥淧enguins could have the ability to cope, like moving breeding sites,鈥� said Holt. 鈥淏ut it will take time to investigate whether those adaptations are effective.鈥�

The research was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Exxon-Mobil Foundation, the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, the Chase Foundation, the Cunningham Foundation, the MKCG Foundation, the Offield Foundation, the Peach Foundation, the Thorne Foundation, the Tortuga Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science at the UW.

For more information, contact Holt at kaholt@uw.edu.

Many seabirds in the Northern Hemisphere are struggling to breed 鈥� and in the Southern Hemisphere, they may not be far behind. These are the conclusions of a , published May 27 in Science, analyzing more than 50 years of breeding records for 67 seabird species worldwide.

The international team of scientists 鈥� led by William Sydeman at the in California 鈥� discovered that reproductive success decreased in the past half century for fish-eating seabirds north of the equator. The Northern Hemisphere has suffered greater impacts from human-caused climate change and other human activities, like overfishing.

Seabirds include albatrosses, puffins, murres, penguins and other birds. Whether they soar or swim, all seabirds are adapted to feed in and live near ocean waters. Many scientists view seabirds as sentinels of habitat health because their lives and well-being depend on sound conditions both on land and at sea, said co-author , a 91探花 professor of biology and director of the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels.

鈥淪eabirds travel long distances 鈥� some going from one hemisphere to the other 鈥� chasing their food in the ocean,鈥� said Boersma. 鈥淭his makes them very sensitive to changes in things like ocean productivity, often over a large area.鈥�

In addition, seabirds congregate at particular sites along coasts to breed and rear their young, which makes them vulnerable to changing shore and surface conditions and restricts how far they can travel for food while still successfully raising their chicks, Boersma added.

Seabird diets played a major role in their ability to rear chicks. In the north, fish-eating seabirds saw a significant decline in reproductive success over the study period. In addition, surface-feeding birds in both hemispheres were more prone to reproductive failure, regardless of whether they ate fish or smaller plankton, like krill. Deep-diving birds, like puffins, fared best in terms of reproductive success.

The team believes changing environmental conditions are to blame. Seabirds must travel far for food, and eat a lot 鈥� murres, for example, must consume half their body weight in fish daily. Nearly 1 million murres starved to death and breeding colonies crashed in 2015-2016 due to a long-term marine heat wave that disrupted food webs in the northeast Pacific. Climate change is causing more frequent and more extreme events like those heat waves, and seabirds out in the ocean face other threats as well.

鈥淭hey have to compete with us for food. They can get caught in our fishing nets. They eat our plastic, which they think is food,鈥� said Boersma. 鈥淎ll of these factors can kill off large numbers of long-lived seabirds.鈥�

These changes have implications beyond seabirds.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 also at stake is the health of fish populations such as salmon and cod, as well as marine mammals and large invertebrates, such as squid, that are eating the same small forage fish and plankton that seabirds eat,鈥� said Sydeman. 鈥淲hen seabirds aren鈥檛 doing well, this is a red flag that something bigger is happening below the ocean鈥檚 surface which is concerning because we depend on healthy oceans for quality of life.鈥�

The team found high variability in reproductive success among species, showing that additional research is needed to understand all of the factors that shape feeding and breeding for these species.

Boersma鈥檚 research on South American penguins illustrates just how much local conditions at sea and on land shape reproductive success. For the study, she contributed more than 35 years of data on breeding success at Punta Tombo, a site with one of the largest breeding colonies for Magellanic penguins in southern Argentina. Over nearly four decades, Punta Tombo has changed rapidly.

鈥淭oday the breeding population at Punta Tombo is about half of what it was in the early 1980s,鈥� said Boersma.

During the breeding season each summer, Magellanic parents must frequently return to the water to catch fish for their chicks. Changing ocean conditions mean that adults must travel farther from Punta Tombo to find food, increasing the risk of chick starvation, Boersma said. Conditions on land, such as frequent storms, can also destroy nests and kill chicks, she added.

Conditions far out at sea, where Magellanic penguins spend months feeding each winter after the breeding season, are also shaping Punta Tombo. The proportion of male Magellanic penguins at that site has risen over the years, and as a result many males cannot find a mate. Boersma and her team have found that harsh oceanographic conditions punish females more than males. In addition, juvenile females are more likely to die at sea while they鈥檙e trying to find food.

Southern seabirds fared better overall, the new study found. But over time, southern conditions may catch up to the already-poor conditions in the north, Boersma said.

These findings can be a call to protect sentinels like seabirds, as well as other species impacted by rising ecosystem stress, the researchers said. This requires protecting seabirds across all of their habitats, on land and at sea.

On land, seabirds can attract a lot of attention from people, especially during breeding seasons. But this does not necessarily translate to greater protection for breeding colonies. For example, Boersma and two colleagues almost 300 breeding colonies for penguins around the world that are open to tourists. Fewer than half had management plans to protect the environment, parents and chicks from curious human visitors.

At sea, establishing marine preserves would protect seabird feeding waters from overfishing, vessel traffic, pollution and energy extraction 鈥� giving these birds a much-needed boost in the face of climate change.

鈥淏y knowing what is important to a species for success, we can make the world a better place for its survival,鈥� said Boersma.

For more information, contact Boersma at boersma@uw.edu and Sydeman at wsydeman@faralloninstitute.org.聽 聽

Four 91探花 faculty members are among the leaders in academia, business, philanthropy, the humanities and the arts of the , one of the nation鈥檚 oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

The 91探花fellows are , professor emeritus of education; , professor of atmospheric sciences; , professor of biology; and , professor emeritus of Asian languages and literature. They are among .

鈥淲e are honoring the excellence of these individuals, celebrating what they have achieved so far, and imagining what they will continue to accomplish,鈥� said David Oxtoby, president of the academy. 鈥淭he past year has been replete with evidence of how things can get worse; this is an opportunity to illuminate the importance of art, ideas, knowledge and leadership that can make a better world.鈥�

Honored for his work in education,聽聽is the founding director of the Banks Center for Educational Justice 鈥� originally the Center for Multicultural Education 鈥� in the 91探花College of Education. He holds the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies Emeritus and retired from the UW聽in 2019, after 50 years.

Widely known as the 鈥渇ather of multicultural education,鈥� Banks specializes in the teaching of social studies, diversity and citizenship education. Banks has written and edited numerous articles and books, including 鈥淭he Handbook of Research in Multicultural Education,鈥� 鈥淭he Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education鈥� and the70-plus-volume Multicultural Education Series of books published by Teachers College Press at Columbia University.聽 Most recently, a collection of his works was published, 鈥淒iversity, Transformative Knowledge and Civic Education: Selected Essays.鈥� Banks is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

The Banks Center, established in 1992, is devoted to cultivating partnerships, and developing programs and collaborative research from early childhood through higher education.

, a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences who holds the Tamaki Endowed Chair, is recognized for his work on climate variability. Battisti earned his doctorate in atmospheric sciences at the 91探花in 1988, then went to the University of Wisconsin before returning to the 91探花as a faculty member in 1990.

Battisti鈥檚 research looks at how interactions between the ocean, air, land and sea ice can affect the climate on timescales from seasons to decades. His more recent research has looked at how climate change is likely to affect global food production. Battisti directed the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, a partnership between the 91探花and NOAA, from 1997 to 2003, and co-chaired the science steering committee for the U.S. program from 1998 to 2002. He is also a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and of the American Geophysical Union.

, a professor of biology and director of the , earned a doctoral degree in zoology from the Ohio State University in 1974 and joined the 91探花faculty later that year. She has studied the health, behavior and ecological dynamics of South American penguins for nearly four decades 鈥� particularly Magellanic penguins in Argentina and Gal谩pagos penguins in Ecuador.

Boersma advocates for penguins as indicators of ocean health. Her research on Gal谩pagos penguins has focused on their adaptations to El Ni帽o and other events in this 鈥減redictably unpredictable鈥� region. Recent Magellanic penguin studies seek to understand how conditions in the ocean 鈥� where they feed outside of the breeding season 鈥� impact their health, well-being and reproductive success.

Over the years, Boersma has worked with partners such as the Global Penguin Society to protect Magellanic nesting grounds and welcome thousands of ecotourists to view the penguins. She holds the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science at the 91探花and has thrice been a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize, the highest honor for animal conservation.

is professor emeritus of Asian languages and literature and the William P. and Ruth Gerberding university professor emeritus. He was recognized for his contributions to religious studies. He is the former president of the International Association of Buddhist Studies and of the American Oriental Society, and since 1996 the director of the UW鈥檚 Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project, which is charged with the study and publication of the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts, dating back to the first century BCE. Salomon earned his doctorate in Sanskrit from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and joined the 91探花in 1981.

Salomon is a leading figure in the field of early Buddhist studies. His specialties include Sanskrit language and literature, Indian Buddhist literature and textual studies, Indian epigraphy and paleography, G膩ndh膩r墨 language and Gandh膩ran studies, and the world history of writing. He has published seven books and over 150 articles in these and other fields.

The Academy was established in 1780 to provide guidance to a young nation that would face challenges and need expertise and excellence to emerge stronger. Its founders, including John Adams and John Hancock, believed the new republic should honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good. The Academy鈥檚 dual mission remains essentially the same today with members from increasingly diverse fields working together to share ideas and recommendations in the arts, democracy, education, global affairs and science.

Boersma, a 91探花professor of biology and director of the , for the 2020 Indianapolis Prize for conservation, to be awarded later this year by the Indianapolis Zoological Society. Moore, a scientist with the center and a 91探花affiliate professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences, , also known as the Arctic Medal, from the International Arctic Science Committee.

Boersma joined the 91探花faculty in 1974 and has studied and advocated for penguins in South America for more than three decades 鈥� focusing on Magellanic penguins in Argentina and Gal谩pagos penguins in Ecuador. Her efforts have not just gathered scientific information about these birds, but also shifted public opinion and government policy. When she first arrived at Punta Tombo 鈥� the stretch of Argentine coastline where hundreds of thousands of Magellanic penguins breed each summer 鈥� one company had proposed culling the birds for oil and protein, and to use their hides to make 鈥渉igh-end golf gloves,鈥� said Boersma.

Over the years, Boersma has worked with partners such as the Global Penguin Society to protect Magellanic nesting grounds and welcome thousands of eco-tourists to view the penguins. Strategies have included diverting oil tankers farther offshore and setting up environmental preserves.

Boersma argues that penguins are indicators of ocean health. In the Gal谩pagos, much of her research has focused on how the thousands of penguins there adapt to El Ni帽o and other events in this 鈥減redictably unpredictable鈥� region. For the Magellanic penguins, much of her team鈥檚 recent research has shifted toward understanding how conditions in the ocean 鈥� where they feed outside of the breeding season 鈥� impacts their health, well-being and reproductive success at Punta Tombo.

The Indianapolis Prize is the highest honor for animal conservation and has been awarded every other year since 2006. As one of six finalists, Boersma will receive $10,000. The winner, to be announced later this year, will receive $250,000. Boersma was previously a finalist in 2016 and 2018.

Moore has been studying whales and marine ecosystems in the Arctic region since 1981, using both visual surveys from aircraft and ships and listening for whales using hydrophones. Recently, she has studied how climate change is impacting the food supply and feeding behavior of bowhead and gray whales. Moore has also worked on mitigation scenarios to protect whales and other large mammals in the Arctic from the effects of shipping and oil and gas development in the region.

Moore began her career conducting Arctic whale surveys and related studies through the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Department of Defense and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1998, she moved to NOAA鈥檚 National Marine Mammal Laboratory, and served as its director from 2002 to 2004. Moore鈥檚 involvement with the 91探花began in 2004, as a visiting scholar with the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory where she worked to develop passive acoustic systems 鈥� like autonomous Seagliders and recorders 鈥� to study ocean ecosystems. She became an affiliate 91探花faculty member in 2006. In 2008, she returned to NOAA, where she led the program and helped to develop the in the Pacific Arctic region. After retiring from NOAA in 2018, Moore joined the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels full time in 2019.

Moore similarly advocates for whales as sentinels of Arctic marine ecosystem health in a region that is warming rapidly due to climate change. She will receive the IASC Medal and deliver an invited lecture March 30 during the in Akureyri, Iceland.

Parenthood can be a struggle, particularly for families with multiple children in need of care, nurturing, protection and attention. But a weary mom or dad may find solace in the reassurance that all parents with several offspring face a similar challenge 鈥� even the non-human variety.

Researchers at the 91探花 wanted to know how parents in South America balance the dietary demands of multiple chicks. As they report in a published Jan. 23 in the journal , when a Magellanic penguin parent returns to its nest with fish, the parent tries to feed each of its two chicks equal portions of food, regardless of the youngsters’ differences in age or size.

This finding surprised the team, since parents across the animal kingdom, including other penguin species, often allocate resources unequally to their chicks based on factors like offspring age, body condition, health and behavior, said senior author . Boersma, a 91探花professor of biology and director of the , has for more than three decades studied penguins at Punta Tombo, a coastal region in Argentina that hosts one of this species’ largest breeding colonies.

“This is an exciting finding because, among animals, it is very unusual for parents to divide food equally among their offspring,” said Boersma. “This makes Magellanic penguin parents stand out not just among penguins, but also animals in general.”

Magellanic chicks are the same size when they hatch, but eggs within a nest hatch at different times. After mating, a Magellanic female lays two eggs about four days apart. One chick typically hatches at least two days before the other. Chicks grow to different sizes based on the timing of their first feedings. By the time both chicks are at least 20 days old, one chick is on average 22 percent heavier than its sibling, the team found. Yet despite these size differences, this study shows that when Magellanic chicks are older and more mobile, parents feed both chicks equally as well as rapidly.

“These findings raise some very interesting evolutionary questions about how and why this behavior 鈥� feeding chicks equally 鈥� arose,” said Boersma.

For this study, Boersma and her team observed parents feeding their chicks at Punta Tombo from 2003 to 2007. Past research showed that parents alternate roles when chicks are small: One stays at the nest to guard chicks while the other feeds offshore and brings back a belly full of fish to regurgitate into the chicks’ mouths. For this study, the researchers observed nests where the chicks were at least 20 days old to track whether chick behaviors, such as begging or competition during feeding, influenced the amount of food they received. The team weighed 218 chicks both before and after the feeding, and observed parent and offspring behavior during mealtime. Forty chicks came from one-chick nests 鈥� presumably cases where the second egg failed to hatch or the chick died of starvation 鈥� while the other 178 came from 89 two-chick nests.

As expected, chicks without a sibling received more food during a feeding and were heavier than chicks with a sibling. Before eating, singleton chicks weighed an average of about 5.7 pounds and received about 1.2 pounds of food on average per feeding. For two-chick nests, the heavier and lighter chicks weighed an average of 5.1 pounds and 4.2 pounds, respectively. Yet both chicks received about 0.8 pounds of food on average per feeding.

Parents with two chicks managed this equal division despite the rushed choreography of mealtimes. The researchers found that feedings lasted just 21 minutes on average, during which the parent used its flippers to keep one chick to its left and one to its right 鈥� turning its head to feed one and then the other. Light and heavy chicks begged a similar number of times and each switched sides five or six times during the feeding, yet siblings did not act aggressively toward one other. The researchers observed that the parent directed more non-feeding behaviors to the lighter chick, such as opening its mouth but not regurgitating any food. Yet ultimately the lighter chick received the same amount of food as its sibling.

These findings shed light on when, where and how animals decide whether to treat their offspring equally or give preferential attention to one. For Magellanic penguins, factors affecting this behavior may be food supply, digestion and the time between feedings. In other penguin species, food supply impacts feeding behaviors. , for example, have a relatively stable and abundant food supply because long daylight hours in Antarctic summers allow them to feed around the clock. Boersma and her colleague Lloyd Davis at the University of Otago in New Zealand found that Ad茅lie parents run from their chicks, and the chick that follows its parent the longest is typically fed the most. For Magellanic penguins, food is less plentiful, and chicks typically wait three to five days between feedings. Each year, about 40 percent of chicks die at Punta Tombo due to starvation, and research by Boersma’s group indicates that a chick is most at risk of starvation when it is between 5 and 9 days old. Magellanic parents are prompted feed chicks as soon as they arrive at the nest because food that digests too long in their stomachs is less nutritious for chicks.

These factors may pressure adults to feed chicks quickly and equally, Boersma said. In addition, chicks may avoid direct competition because that could delay the feeding, she added. The age of the chicks in this study 鈥� all at least 20 days old 鈥� may also help explain their findings.

“This behavior may have evolved because, once both chicks reach this age, it may be advantageous for the parents to try to raise both of their chicks to fledging 鈥� the stage at which chicks leave the nest 鈥� rather than preferentially giving one more resources than the other,” said Boersma.

If so, then equality on the part of Magellanic penguin parents is less of an egalitarian virtue and more an investment in survival of the next generation.

Lead and corresponding author on the paper is , who worked on this project as part of his 91探花doctoral degree in biology. The study was funded by the Chase Foundation; the Cunningham Foundation; the CGMK Foundation; the Offield Family Foundation; the Peach Foundation; the Thorne Foundation; the 91探花Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science; and Friends of the Penguins.

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For more information, contact Boersma at boersma@uw.edu or Wagner at erlwagne@gmail.com.聽Boersma’s availability is limited currently due to field research.

Like most of their stout-bodied, flippered kin, Magellanic penguins spend much of their lives in the ocean. From late autumn through winter and into spring in the Southern Hemisphere, these South American penguins swim off the coast of southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina in search of anchovies, sardines and squid.

But as spring turns to summer, they swim thousands of miles south and congregate in big coastal colonies. There, males and females pair off, breed and attempt to rear one or two newly hatched chicks. One of the largest breeding colonies for Magellanic penguins is at Punta Tombo in Argentina, where 91探花 biology professor and her team at the have studied the penguins since 1982. They have documented a population decline at Punta Tombo of more than 40 percent since 1987, along with a rising male-to-female ratio, and have spent years trying to pinpoint its cause.

In a published Jan. 2 in聽the journal , Boersma and 91探花postdoctoral researcher report that juvenile females are more likely to die at sea, which has caused a skewed sex ratio of nearly three males to every female, as well as population decline. Their study incorporated more than 30 years of population data collected by 91探花researchers 鈥� including banding and studying individual penguins 鈥� into models of population dynamics. Boersma and Gownaris’ models show that juveniles have much lower survival rates than adults in all years, a common phenomenon in seabirds. In addition, among both juveniles and adults, females are less likely to survive than males, but this sex bias is much larger among juveniles. Adult females seem to fare worst in years when overall survival is low, suggesting they are more vulnerable than males to disruptions in the food supply during the nonbreeding season.

“From a conservation standpoint, this study shows us how important it is to try to protect the places where these penguins feed throughout the year, both in the breeding season and the nonbreeding season,” said Gownaris. “It all comes down to food for this species.”

This study relied on year-to-year surveys of penguins that had been fitted with stainless-steel bands marked with a unique five-digit number. Between 1983 and 2010, Boersma and her team banded 44,374 chicks at Punta Tombo, tracking generations of Magellanic penguin families. Only 3,296 of these individuals survived and were seen again at the colony. In 57 percent of cases, researchers also noted the sex of the individual 鈥� no easy task in a species where males and females look so much alike. Each Southern Hemisphere summer, which corresponds to winter in the Northern Hemisphere, researchers noted which individuals returned to Punta Tombo, and gathered information such as body condition and breeding success.

The 3,296 penguins that returned are a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands who came to Punta Tombo over the three-decade survey period. But information about the banded birds helped Gownaris and Boersma learn about the entire population. Gownaris compared the results from her models of banded birds to annual survey data collected throughout the colony. These comparisons allowed her to see whether trends in the banded birds were also seen in the larger population.

One of these trends is an increasingly skewed sex ratio and more single male penguins.

“Two decades ago, there were about 1.5 adult male Magellanic penguins for every adult female at Punta Tombo,” said Gownaris. “Today, it’s approaching three males for every female.”

Both the survey data and population models indicated that adult sex ratios were skewed because fewer females than males returned to the colony each spring for the breeding season. The surveys of banded penguins showed an average return rate for juvenile males of just 17 percent, and 12 percent for juvenile females. Gownaris’ models of the whole population indicated that male juveniles had an average return rate about 33.3 percentage points higher than females. Adult Magellanic penguins had much higher return rates than juveniles, and though females still lagged behind males, the gap was not as large as in juveniles. About 89 percent of adult males returned each year, as did 85 percent of females.

Though this may seem like a small difference, the bias in survival accumulates over time. By the time a cohort of penguins reaches age 25, there are about six males for every female.

Other groups have analyzed Magellanic penguin corpses that washed up off the coast of southern Brazil in winter. Their studies also indicate that females are more likely to die of starvation than males 鈥� especially juvenile females.

Though male and female Magellanic penguins look similar, males are about 17 percent larger, and have longer and thicker bills. This may give males a significant advantage when foraging for food in the ocean 鈥� especially when oceanographic conditions make finding food in the winter more difficult, as the team .

Using population models, Gownaris showed that the higher mortality of females at Punta Tombo contributed to skewed sex ratios and consequent population declines at the site from 1990 to 2010.聽 This contribution was much greater than that of variation in chick survival. 聽The data also suggest that, due to the skewed sex ratio, the population may be declining faster than suggested by the population surveys that are typically used to calculate population trends in the colony.

“It makes sense that the worsening sex ratio is responsible for so much of the population decline at Punta Tombo based on what we know about penguin behavior,” said Gownaris. “Magellanic penguins are serially monogamous 鈥� with one male pairing with one female each breeding season 鈥� and both parents working together to rear the chicks. So, having fewer females means you have fewer pairings each year overall.”

Gownaris wants to survey other Magellanic penguin breeding colonies along the coast to see if they show similarly skewed sex ratios. She and Boersma hope that this information will help new conservation efforts.

“Over the years, this team has helped around breeding colonies like Punta Tombo,” said Gownaris. “But now we’re starting to understand that, to help Magellanic penguins, you have to protect waters where they feed in winter, which are thousands of miles north from Punta Tombo.”

The research was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society; the ExxonMobil Foundation; the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation; the Disney Conservation Fund; the National Geographic Society; the Chase Foundation; the Cunningham Foundation; the CGMK Foundation; the Offield Family Foundation; the Peach Foundation; the Thorne Foundation; the Tortuga Foundation; the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the 91探花Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science; and Friends of the Penguins.

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For more information, contact Gownaris at 206-616-4054 or ngowna@uw.edu.

DOI: 10.1002/eap.1826

Yet life for these birds when they winter offshore is largely a mystery to the scientists who study Magellanic penguins 鈥� and who advocate for their conservation amid declining population numbers.

“The winter period is something of a black box for us in terms of understanding Magellanic penguins,” said , a 91探花 research scientist. “We know the least amount about this part of their year.”

But research by Rebstock and , a 91探花professor of biology and founder of the , is starting to pry open that black box and discover how Magellanic penguins from one nesting site, Punta Tombo in Argentina, fare during the winter months. In a published Aug. 9 in the journal , they report that the R铆o de la Plata 鈥� which drains South America’s second-largest river system after the Amazon 鈥� strongly influences oceanographic conditions in the Magellanic penguins’ winter feeding waters. Those oceanographic features, they report, show up in the body conditions of Magellanic penguin females, but not males, when the penguins return to their nesting grounds in spring.

“Researchers only get to study the penguins up close 鈥� monitor their biology, their health, their population numbers 鈥� for the one time in the year that they come to nesting sites like Punta Tombo to breed,” said Rebstock. “Until now, we have not really known how conditions out in the ocean, where they spend the entire winter, affect them.”

Magellanic penguins are believed to swim hundreds of miles in winter to feed on fish such as anchovy and sardines. For penguins originating at Punta Tombo, this could mean swimming more than 1,000 miles north along the coast up to southern Brazil. They generally stay along the continental shelf in waters usually no more than about 650 feet deep.

To understand the oceanographic dynamics in this region, Rebstock turned her attention to space. She analyzed 30 years of weekly sea-surface temperature data, which National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites collected for those South American coastal waters from 1982 to 2012. Data show that geographic features of coastal South America are responsible for key variations in ocean conditions.

For example, her analysis revealed that the R铆o de la Plata, which enters the ocean between Argentina and Uruguay, is the primary driver of oceanographic conditions in the penguins’ winter feeding waters. The river discharges silt, microbes and nutrients into the ocean as a plume, which disperses in different directions based on prevailing winds. Strong winds from the southwest, for example, can spread the plume north along hundreds of miles of Brazilian coastline. If winds are weaker, the plume stays near the mouth of the R铆o de la Plata.

Rebstock then analyzed whether variations in these oceanographic features 鈥� such as a strong, dispersed plume or a weak, localized plume 鈥� were associated with the body condition of penguins at the time of their arrival at Punta Tombo. Boersma and her team have collected information on the health and state of individual penguins when they arrive Punta Tombo for more than three decades. According to their data, the body conditions of male Magellanic penguins weren’t correlated with the extent of the plume. But Rebstock found that female penguins arrived back at Punta Tombo earlier, and in healthier body condition, if the R铆o de la Plata plume was weaker in winter. This may indicate that the plume affects how hard Magellanic penguins must work to find food.

“We believe that the R铆o de la Plata plume carries a great deal of nutrients into the coastal waters, making them very productive feeding grounds for the penguins,” said Rebstock. “But winds will affect where the plume is distributed and how far penguins will have to go to reach it.”

A weaker plume may keep the penguins’ prey closer together and closer to breeding colonies, increasing an individual penguin’s odds of catching fish. Magellanic penguins also are mainly visual hunters. A stronger plume that clings to the coast may obstruct visibility for the birds by making waters more turbid, said Rebstock.

The size and disposition of the plume may affect females more than males because male Magellanic penguins tend to be larger, which allows them to dive deeper. This may give males a slight edge in catching food, especially in difficult conditions, said Rebstock.

“What we would like to do next is test some of these hypotheses by tracking male and female Magellanic penguins during the winter months, to see if they are feeding in the same locations and see how successful they are at obtaining food in different conditions,” said Rebstock.

For researchers like Rebstock, that may be the next black box to open. But it will also pose a logistical challenge. Researchers have tried to track Magellanic penguins during winter using satellite tags, but the penguins are very effective at taking them off.

The research was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society; the ExxonMobil Foundation; the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation; the Disney Conservation Fund; the National Geographic Society; the Chase Foundation; the Cunningham Foundation; the CGMK Foundation; the Offield Family Foundation; the Peach Foundation; the Thorne Foundation; the Tortuga Foundation; the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; 91探花Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science; and Friends of the Penguins.

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For more information, contact Rebstock at gar@uw.edu.

It turns out that to tell the sex of a Gal谩pagos penguin, all you need is a ruler.

In a published April 5 in the journal , scientists at the 91探花 announced that, for a Gal谩pagos penguin, beak size is nearly a perfect indicator of whether a bird is male or female. Armed with this knowledge, researchers could determine the sex of a bird quickly and accurately in the wild without taking a blood sample 鈥� speeding up field studies of this unusual and endangered seabird.

“For Gal谩pagos penguins, we really wanted to understand if there was a simple ‘rule’ we could employ to determine sex 鈥� a sign that would be fast and reliable,” said lead author , a 91探花doctoral student in biology.

Gal谩pagos penguins are the only penguins to live in an equatorial region. Like all penguin species and most birds, they lack external genitalia. In addition, male and female Gal谩pagos penguins look similar to one another and both share parenting duties, incubating eggs and rearing the offspring. Males do tend to be slightly larger than females, but the difference is slight. A DNA test is available to determine the sex of a Gal谩pagos penguin, but that requires obtaining a blood sample from each individual 鈥� an invasive and time-consuming process.

“We were hoping to find a physical trait to determine sex in Gal谩pagos penguins that would be simple to measure in the field,” said Cappello. “By finding such a sex-specific trait, we could use that in our field studies on whether shifting climactic conditions affect male and female Gal谩pagos penguins differently.”

To search for a physical sign of sex, from 2010 to 2014 senior author and 91探花biology professor collected body measurements from 61 adult Gal谩pagos penguins in the wild 鈥� including head size, flipper length, foot length and a half-dozen measurements of the beak and its surrounding feathers. Boersma also obtained blood samples from each penguin and sent them to , a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, to determine the sex of each adult using the DNA test.

Cappello combined the body-size measurements and DNA test results into a statistical analysis to search for physical characteristics that correlated with the sex of the bird. She found that males had slightly thicker beaks 鈥� measured from top to bottom 鈥� compared to females. Using beak size alone, Cappello could correctly determine the sex of more than 95 percent of their study penguins. This has been reported for several other penguin species, but Cappello and Boersma are the first to test it by genetic analysis for the Gal谩pagos penguin.

This knowledge will help the 91探花team study Gal谩pagos penguins in what Boersma has called a “predictably unpredictable” place. Straddling the equator, the Gal谩pagos Islands are perfectly placed to take advantage of an upwelling of Pacific Ocean currents. This upwelling typically brings nutrients that support small-schooling fish to the islands for the penguins and other marine animals to feast upon, said Boersma, who has been studying Gal谩pagos penguins for more than four decades.

But El Ni帽o events can disrupt these currents and collapse the Gal谩pagos food web, leading to starvation. This puts a strain on the penguin population, which numbers between 1,500 and 4,700 individuals. According to Boersma’s research, in particularly lean El Ni帽o years, Gal谩pagos penguins can even stop breeding altogether. Climate change is expected to increase the occurrence of El Ni帽o conditions and extreme weather events.

Other preliminary studies have suggested that male Gal谩pagos penguins are more likely to survive extreme environmental conditions compared to females. Scientists do not know why, and studies of sex-specific survival during El Ni帽o years were hampered because researchers lacked easy ways to determine the sex of individual penguins 鈥� that is, until now.

“Now we can start to look at whether climate change will impact male and female Gal谩pagos penguins differently, and what kind of strain this might put on their ability to survive as a species,” said Cappello.

The research was conducted in partnership with the Gal谩pagos National Park and was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gal谩pagos Conservancy, the Disney Conservation Fund, the National Geographic Society, the Leiden Conservation Foundation, the Detroit Zoological Society, the Sacramento Zoo and the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science at the UW.

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For more information, contact Cappello at ccappell@uw.edu.

Gal谩pagos National Park permit numbers: PC-47-10 through PC-61-16.