P Dee Boersma

PeerJ Editor & Author

Summary

Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science and Prof. of Biology, University of Washington, Director for Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and the Wildlife Conservation Society Magellanic Penguin Project, and Adjunct Curator of Ornithology, Burke Museum. Recipient of 2024 Godman-Salvin Prize, 2012 Ocean Conservation Award Aquarium of the Pacific, 2010 Nature Conservancy of Washington Environmental Hero, 2009 Annual Heinz Award for the Environment. Former President of the Society of Conservation Biology. For selected publications go to ecosystemsentinels.org.

Biological Oceanography Ecology Marine Biology Science Policy

Editorial Board Member

PeerJ - the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences

Past or current institution affiliations

University of Washington

Work details

Professor of Biology

University of Washington

Department of Biology

Professor Boersma's academic research is in the area of conservation biology and has focused on seabirds as indicators of environmental change. She directs the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and is Co-Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature SSC Penguin Specialist Group. In her role as a scientific fellow for the Wildlife Conservation Society she leads the research on Magellanic Penguins at Punta Tombo, Argentina. Since the project started in 1982, each year she and her team have followed the lives of individual Magellanic penguins in the South Atlantic, determining their reproductive success, foraging locations, population dynamics, and the effects of perturbations.and policy changes on their survival. A Marine Protected Area (MPA) based on her long-term satellite work at Punta Tombo, home to the largest Magellanic penguin colony in the world, is under consideration by the Chubut government. The Galapagos penguin, the only penguin breeding on the equator, is the rarest species of penguin and its' breeding distribution is very restricted. In 2010 we built nesting sites that the penguin are using to increase the population. Galapagos penguins molt twice a year so the research examines penguin body condition to learn how climate variation impacts the timing and frequency of the molt as well as the morphology of the penguins.

Websites

October 21, 2024

Foot darkening with age in Spheniscus penguins: applications and functions

Ginger A. Rebstock, K. Pearl Wellington, P. Dee Boersma

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17937 PubMed 39450210

May 20, 2019

Lateralization (handedness) in Magellanic penguins

Thaís Stor, Ginger A. Rebstock, Pablo García Borboroglu, P. Dee Boersma

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6936 PubMed 31149402

Academic Editor on

May 18, 2016

Premature feather loss among common tern chicks in Ontario: the return of an enigmatic developmental anomaly

Jennifer M. Arnold, Donald J. Tyerman, Doug Crump, Kim L. Williams, Stephen A. Oswald

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1959 PubMed 27231646