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Amelia DuVall

she/her

PhD Student

University
of Washington

Discipline

Conservation, Population Dynamics, Reproductive Biology & Life History, Migration & Movement Ecology

Regional Focus

Pacific Ocean

Years Active

11-15 years

Species Focus

Auks (Alcidae), Gulls and Terns (Laridae), Pelecans (Pelecanidae), Gannets and Boobies (Sulidae), Storm-Petrels (Hydrobatidae & Oceanitidae)

Tell us about your work with seabirds.

Seabirds spend their lives under the water, in the sky, and on land, where they are exposed to a range of threats like invasive predators, fisheries bycatch, and impacts from climate change. As a result, they are one of the most endangered groups of birds in the world. Since a lot of seabirds spend most of their lives at sea and only come to remote islands to breed, they can be notoriously difficult to study. I use a suite of field methods including acoustic monitors, bird banding, satellite tracking, camera traps, nest monitoring, and more to peak into their lives. Then, I use quantitative methods in population ecology to understand the status and drivers of seabird populations as well as decision-analytic methods to inform management actions to conserve populations.

What advice would you offer to individuals aspiring to pursue a career as seabird scientists?

We need you! There are so many ways to contribute to seabird science - as an artist, project manager, boat captain, pilot, statistician, carpenter, and more. Figure out where your talents and interests lie and think creatively about how you could apply them to seabird science. Keep an eye out for gaps in the system, too. I never imagined I would become a quantitative ecologist but I saw there was a need for it and I hope this skillset will allow me to continue working with seabirds for the rest of my career.

Amelia DuVall

Amelia is wearing a headlamp and is crawling out from a sea cave on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park, USA, where she was searching for nesting Ashy Storm-Petrels.

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