My Research
I’m a doctoral researcher based at The University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences. I work with Dr. Brendon Dunphy on the ecophysiology of Procellariiform seabirds (petrels and shearwaters) in the Northern New Zealand region.
My PhD research is looking at how we can monitor sublethal impacts of climate change on seabird populations – basically, how can we tell seabirds aren’t doing well before we start to see them dying in large numbers, or failing to breed. I’ve been using a mix of physiological health indicators, dietary data, and GPS tracking birds to find out how four species of seabird have been coping with the recent marine heatwaves in northern Aotearoa.
I’m currently writing up my doctoral thesis. My first chapter – a review of ecophysiological tools for seabird conservation, is Open Access here!
Parts of my project have received funding from the BirdsNZ Research Fund in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Find my other publications here: Google Scholar Profile
In 2019 I wrote a review of Threats to Seabirds of Northern Aotearoa New Zealand, which can be found here.
Northern New Zealand Seabird Trust
I am a Trustee of the NNZST, and also occasionally write blogs about our projects here. Below is a gallery of photos from some of our recent projects!
Master’s Research
My project investigated how different populations of ōi (Grey-faced petrels) respond to stress, and monitored the health of the birds through the breeding season. I also looked for age-related change in stress responses in a population of known-age ōi between 5 and 29 years old. A summary of my findings are available here, or you can contact me for published works.
Resources:
- Age-related physiological change in Grey-faced petrels (Conference poster)
- Whitehead, E. A., Russell, J. C., Hickey, A. J., Taylor, G. A., O’Reilly, K. M., Della Penna, A., & Dunphy, B. J. (2022). Seabird stress and breeding: Endocrine and hematological stress biomarkers differ between gray‐faced petrel (Pterodroma gouldi) colonies. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology.