Friday Harbor Laboratories Student Research Papers
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Effects of Vessel Disturbance on Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Abundance and Behavior at Yellow Island and Goose Island, WA, USA
(2023)Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are pinnipeds inhabiting northern temperate coastal regions, with one of their most dense populations found in the Salish Sea of the Pacific Northwest. They use haul-out sites for activities ... -
Compliance to the Voluntary No-Go Zones Off Lime Kiln Point State Park: Efficacy of a Southern Resident Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Conservation Strategy
(2023)Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs) (Orcinus orca) are a piscivorous ecotype of killer whale comprised of 75 individuals found in the Salish Sea from April to October. Following a 20% decline in population size from ... -
Assessing the abundance and movement of marine birds during a range of tidal currents at Cattle Point, San Juan Island
(2023)Observational surveys are vital to ornithological studies. Often done by boat or plane, they can offer data on the behavior, ecology, and habitat use of marine birds. However, these methods can be challenging to use, ... -
Comparative Behavioral and Diversity Studies of Shorebirds in Marine and Freshwater Habitats at San Juan Island
(2023)Shorebirds are found in marine and freshwater, and provide a variety of ecosystem functions. Our study took place on San Juan Island, Washington, USA where we observed sandpiper and plover species and how they interacted ... -
Effects of Time, Tide, and Currents on Pacific Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias fannini) Abundance, Behavior, Prey, and Strike Rates at False Bay, San Juan Island
(2023)Pacific Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias fannini) are large, non-migratory wading birds residing on the coast of Washington State, British Columbia, and Alaska. Herons are commonly found near shores of wetlands and ... -
Implications of Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) Predation on the Goose Island Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) Nesting Colony
(2023)In Washington state, rebounding Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) populations are having both direct and indirect effects on the reproductive success of seabirds like Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens). In an ... -
Impact of Time and Tidal Current Speed on Alcid Abundance and Behavior in San Juan Channel
(2023)Understanding daily abundance and behavior of animals is an important part of conservation research, as changes in these factors cannot be considered without a baseline to reference. Our study is focused on providing ... -
Floating Kelp Rafts as Indicators of Aggregation Zones within the San Juan Archipelago
(2023)Bull kelp forests line Salish Sea coastlines, providing important ecosystem services to shallow subtidal habitats. Each winter, bull kelp forests are dislodged by winter storms, setting “kelp rafts” adrift on currents. ... -
Characterizing seasonal dormancy and the physiological threshold for survival in Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus)
(2023)Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) go dormant through the winter. As foraging decreases, sand lance experience a decline in body condition. Natural mortality may occur due to starvation if body condition decreases ... -
Exploring mixed layer dynamics and light as limiting factors in the diatom community in the SJI
(2023)Stratification in the water column and its interplay with light has been historically observed to impact phytoplankton communities, most notably in Sverdrup’s critical depth hypothesis. This study aims to examine ... -
Assessing marine heatwave impacts on the pelagic ecosystem of the San Juan Archipelago
(2023)In a rapidly changing world, understanding the interactions between the biological and abiotic world is crucial to predict change within our ecosystems and more importantly manage them. With increasing occurrences of marine ... -
Dietary and Spatial Analysis of Salmon in San Juan Archipelago, Puget Sound, and Alaska
(2023)This study aims to compare three different species of salmon (king, silver, and pink) in three different regions (San Juan Archipelago, Puget Sound, and Alaska) to add to a six-year-long diet and spatial analysis data set. ... -
Wall obstacles impact escape response latency and directionality in Pacific staghorn sculpin
(2023)Effective escape maneuvers are critical for prey fishes, as fast-start performance has a direct impact on survival in predator-prey interactions. For fish living in structurally complex environments, physical obstacles – ... -
Mechanisms of Resilience: Contextualizing the health of subtidal Zostera marina meadows around the San Juan Islands, Washington
(2023)Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is a vital ecosystem engineer in the Salish Sea and is established as an indicator for ecological health in Puget Sound. Declines within eelgrass meadows around the San Juan Islands from monitoring ... -
Summer Fog Frequency Patterns and Impact on Intertidal Organisms around Washington Coast from GOES-17 Satellite Imagery, Field Photos, and Field Sensors
(2023)Fog can offer protection for intertidal organisms around the coast of Washington when low tides occur coincidently with warm temperatures. This protection becomes more important as extreme heatwaves are expected to ... -
Comparing the Impacts of Human Disturbance and Marine Preserve Status in the Intertidal Community
(2023)Exploring the impacts of human disturbance on the rocky intertidal community has implications for how human interaction can affect community composition, organism abundance, diversity, and species richness. The efficacy ... -
Why are you so defensive? Investigating the correlation between risk-taking behaviors and defensive morphology of marine Three-Spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus
(2023)Defensive morphologies, spines and armor, are wide-spread across multicellular life and do not exist in a vacuum, but instead co-evolve with a host of other traits to form an overall “Armor Syndrome”. The evolution of ... -
Physiological Responses to Water Temperature and Flow in Three Marine Mussel Species
(2023)Many marine organisms must contend with the physiological challenges associated with warming water temperatures. This is especially true in nearshore ecosystems where organisms often live near their thermal limits. ... -
Assessing the impact of heatwave exposure on the swimming performance, kinematics, and metabolism of a nearshore marine fish, Cymatogaster aggregata
(2023)The severity and frequency of marine heatwaves (MHWs) have increased drastically across the globe, with some of the most intense heatwaves happening within the last decade. The consequences of MHWs vary in severity and ... -
Efficiency is not always the name of the game: Pile perch prefer to swim slower than their optimal speed
(2023)The efficient and effective use of movement is essential for survival in mobile animal species. Among a plethora of other uses, movement is used to locate food, find mates, explore the environment, defend territories, ...