Elizabeth Skewgar

Doctoral Candidate

skewes@u.washington.edu

Originally from Wisconsin, I received my B.S. with honors in Zoology and Environmental Studies from UW-Madison. I studied Russian for fun during college, which made it possible for me to study and work in Moscow, Russia after graduation. Combining my interests in science and policy, I moved to Washington, D.C. and worked as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State, covering issues including invasive species, trade in genetically-engineered organisms, and international protection of endangered species. I realized that graduate training would amplify my ability to make scientific knowledge and uncertainty useful to decision-makers, and joined the Boersma lab as a graduate student in 2003. In addition to research, I enjoy using penguins for outreach to K-12 school groups, especially to encourage young women to pursue their interests in math and science. As part of my teaching activities as a graduate student, I have helped develop and served as an instructor for a course that facilitates the success of underrepresented groups in the introductory Biology course series.

Interests:

Not unlike the penguins I currently study, my professional interests cross traditional boundaries. My dissertation focuses on mathematical modeling of penguin movement and behavior at sea, but I am equally interested in how research can inform the difficult policy decisions that determine how humans and wildlife interact. Penguins spend only part of their lives on land, where they are relatively easy to observe. The balance of their lives is spent at sea, where we must resort to remote sensing technologies to observe them. The Boersma lab has a rich set of satellite-telemetry data from the breeding season, when the birds leave their terrestrial colonies and go to sea to find food for themselves and their chicks. We have combined course-scale information about where birds forage during these trips with satellite-telemetry tracks and mathematical modeling techniques to obtain fine-scale information about where and when birds forage during their time at sea. During the winter months, the birds are free to roam the ocean, and the techniques we have developed allow us to assign behaviors to their movements during the winter migration. Our ability to determine the fine-scale patterns of penguin foraging inform our understanding of the energetic consequences of ecosystem changes, such as increasing human fishing effort. Results of this research can also be used to determine where penguin foraging and human ocean activities overlap.

Publications:

Woehler, E., Skewgar, E., Ellis, S., Boersma, P.D. Penguins in Peril: A review of current global conservation status, emerging issues and future threats. In review.
Skewgar, E., Simeone, A., Boersma, P.D. Marine Reserve in Chile Would Benefit Penguins and Ecotourism. In review.
García-Borboroglu, P., Boersma, P.D., Reyes, L. and Skewgar, E. 2008. Pollution and Penguins: Marine Conservation Tools to Reduce the Problem. In: Marine Pollution: New Research. Hofer, T.N., ed. Nova Publishers, Hauppauge, NY, USA.
Skewgar, E., Boersma, P.D., Harris, G., & Caille, G. 2007. Anchovy Fishery Threatens Patagonian Ecosystem. Science 315:45.
Skewes, E.A. 2006. Common Reed, Phragmities australis. In: Invasive Species in the Pacific Northwest. Boersma, P.D., Reichard, S.H., & Van Buren, A.N., eds. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Skewes, E. & Boersma, P.D. 2005. Penguins (book review). Review of Penguins, by Lloyd Davis and Martin Renner. Quarterly Review of Biology 80(3):366.
Skewes, E. & Boersma, P.D. 2006. Boot Camp for Marine Conservation (book review). Review of Coastal-Marine Conservation: Science and Policy, by G. Carleton Ray and Jerry McCormick-Ray. Conservation Biology 20(1):257-259.

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Elizabeth Skewgar