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Overview


I’m a Ph.D. candidate in the Marine Science and Conservation program and associate director of the Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project. I’m broadly interested in how conservation management schemes (from the species to ecosystem level) evolve to include growing and changing information on both biological and social systems using interdisciplinary approaches. My dissertation is a spatially and temporally dynamic study on Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops erebennus) that inhabit the Potomac River and middle Chesapeake Bay, USA. Specifically, the objectives of my dissertation are to: 1) piece together the historic occurrence of dolphins in the Potomac through fishers’ knowledge and historical texts; 2) establish a baseline understanding of the current occurrence of dolphins in the Potomac and middle Chesapeake (i.e., number of individuals, number of mother-calf pairs, seasonality, temporal site fidelity, behavior, and ecological drivers for any observed patterns); and 3) determine their geographic connectivity along the Mid-Atlantic. The overarching goal of my research is twofold. I aim to inform the management of bottlenose dolphins in the Mid-Atlantic by providing managers with information that is currently absent for the region, and I seek to produce questions and hypotheses on the behavior, ecology, and population dynamics of dolphins in the area for future study (by others and hopefully myself!). For more, see Google Scholar or ResearchGate.

In the News


Published April 7, 2022
Dolphins' playful social habits form bonds, but spread virus

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Recent Publications


Tight spatial coupling of a marine predator with soniferous fishes: Using joint modelling to aid in ecosystem approaches to management

Journal Article Diversity and Distributions · August 1, 2023 Aim: Understanding the distribution of marine organisms is essential for effective management of highly mobile marine predators that face a variety of anthropogenic threats. Recent work has largely focused on modelling the distribution and abundance of mar ... Full text Cite

Some like it hot: Temperature and hydrodynamic factors influence Xenobalanus globicipitis attachment to cetaceans

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · July 2023 AbstractBarnacles can reveal much about the physiology, health, and spatial ecology of their cetacean hosts. Here, we examine how temperature and hydrodynamic factors impact presence of Xenobalanus globicipitis ... Full text Cite
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