Research

Behavior is central to animals' fitness in dynamic & changing ecosystems. We seek to understand how biophysical ecosystem dynamics shape the ecology and evolution of behavior, and vice versa.

We are particularly interested in social information, which provides individuals with knowledge beyond their direct sensory capacity & enables collective behavior. We explore these ideas across Earth's diverse ecosystems, but with an emphasis on pelagic (i.e., open & deep ocean) ecosystems. These oceanic ecosystems display unique characteristics with regard to scale (enormous in three dimensions), biophysical dynamics (abundant but extremely non-uniform resources aggregate in fluid, ephemeral hotspots), and the range of social information transfer (e.g., vocal pelagic predators transmit social information over 10s-100s of km). Further, they are historically understudied, despite comprising >95% of Earth's biosphere & hosting our planet's largest animal communities.

Our research spans the spectrum from fundamental to applied, focusing on 3 main themes:

I. Understanding how social information & ecosystem variation interact to drive behavior across levels of biological organization

Select relevant publications:

Oestreich, WK, Aiu, KMˆ, Crowder, LB, McKenna, MF, Berdahl, AM, Abrahms, B (2022) The influence of social cues on timing of animal migrations. Nature Ecology and Evolution. ˆstudent mentee
Oestreich, WK, Abrahms, B, McKenna, MF, Goldbogen, JA, Crowder, LB, Ryan, JP (2022). Acoustic signature reveals blue whales tune life history transitions to oceanographic conditions. Functional Ecology.
Dodson, S*, Oestreich, WK*, Savoca, M, Hazen, EL, Bograd, S, Ryan, JP, Fietchter, J, Abrahms, B (2024). Long-distance communication can enable collective migration in a dynamic seascape. Scientific Reports. *co-lead authors

Some of the tools that we use, develop, & integrate.

II. Integrating tools to expand the breadth of empirical tests to refine behavioral ecology theory

Select relevant publications:

Oestreich, WK, Oliver, RY, Chapman, MS, Go, MC, McKenna, MF (2024). Listening to animal behavior to understand changing ecosystems. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
Oestreich, WK, Fahlbusch, JA, Cade, DE, Calambokidis, J, Margolina, T, Joseph, J, Friedlaender, AS, McKenna, MF, Stimpert, AK, Southall, BL, Goldbogen, JA, Ryan, JP (2020). Animal-borne metrics enable acoustic detection of blue whale migration. Current Biology.
Oestreich, WK, Benoit-Bird, KJ, Abrahms, B, Margolina, T, Joseph, JE, Zhang, Y, Rueda, C, Ryan, JP (2024). Evidence for seasonal resource-tracking migration by a top predator of the deep sea. Movement Ecology.
Ryan, JP, Benoit-Bird, K, Oestreich, WK, Leary, P, Smith, K, Waluk, C, Cade, D, Fahlbusch, J, Southall, B, Joseph, J, Margolina, T, Calambokidis, J, DeVogelaere, A, Goldbogen, JA (2022). Oceanic giants dance to atmospheric rhythms: Ephemeral wind-driven resource tracking by blue whales. Ecology Letters.

III. Collective human sensing for science, conservation, & adaptation

Select relevant publications:

Oestreich, WK, Czapanskiy, MF, Katija, K, Record, NR, Chapman, MS. Collective science to inform global ocean protections. Ecology Letters (in press). [preprint]
Chapman, MS*, Oestreich, WK*, Frawley, TH, Boettiger, C, Diver, S, Santos, BS, Scoville, C, Armstrong, K, Blondin, H, Chand, K, Haulsee, DE, Knight, CJ, Crowder, LB (2021). Promoting equity in the use of algorithms for high seas conservation. One Earth *co-lead authors
Oestreich, WK, Chapman, MS, Crowder, LB (2020). A comparative analysis of dynamic management in marine and terrestrial systems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
Oestreich, WK, Frawley, TH, Mansfield, EJ, Green, KM, Green, SJ, Naggea, J, Selgrath, JC, Swanson, SS, Urteaga, J, White, TD, Crowder, LB. (2019). The impact of environmental change on small-scale fishing communities: Moving beyond adaptive capacity to community response. Predicting Future Oceans.

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