Erin Meyer-Gutbrod
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Ecology & Evolution
When the ocean warms quickly, animals that depend on specific food sources may suddenly move, and conservation rules built around their old habitats can fall behind. In 2010 a rapid climate shift in the Gulf of Maine pushed the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) into new feeding areas.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
North Atlantic right whale
Eubalaena glacialis
endangered species
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Test whether North Atlantic right whales leave or stay at feeding sites based on measurable prey-density thresholds, using an individual movement model built from repeated sightings of identified whales.
- Determine how prey thresholds vary with prey species, site, season, whale age and reproductive status, to explain differences in foraging decisions across the population.
- Identify which zooplankton prey right whales eat in different habitats and seasons, using genetic analysis of whale fecal samples to measure prey types and ratios.
- Map when and where suitable feeding habitat occurs across the North Atlantic, using a prey patch model shaped by behavioral thresholds and diet data.
- Build a next-generation species distribution model that forecasts right whale shifts to new feeding hot spots and separates food-related from human-caused climate impacts.
More about the research
The move brought more deaths from ship strikes and fishing-gear entanglement and fewer calves, and the species is now classed as critically endangered. Such shifts have been hard to predict because monitoring focuses on the whales' known historic habitats.
Why it matters
Predicting where right whales will feed could help federal agencies place protections such as ship-speed and fishing-gear rules where the whales actually are, before collisions and entanglements happen. Results are intended for groups such as the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team and the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind. They could support management that moves with the whales as the climate changes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Leigh Torres
Oregon State University, OR·Ecology & Evolution
Test how temperature affects krill (Nyctiphanes australis) metabolic rate, energy requirements and body condition through controlled experiments measuring bioenergetic and biochemical responses.
Nicole Millette
William & Mary, VA·Ecology & Evolution
Measure how much carbon eight mixotroph species get from photosynthesis versus prey ingestion under different environmental conditions, using isotopic labelling incubation experiments.
Carl Lamborg
University of California-Santa Cruz, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Characterize zooplankton communities along the central and western Aleutian Islands at sites with known differences in mercury levels in marine life, combining oceanography and genomics.
The school
University of South Carolina-Columbia: 22 labs on PI Pages, $277M a year on research, 425 research doctorates a year.
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