Jo Smith
PhD Candidate
Parrish Lab

University of Washington
School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Box 355020, Seattle, WA 98195
contact: Jo Smith
josmith (at) u.washington.edu
office: 206-221-5294

My general research interests are in the biology and conservation of seabirds.

Juan Fernández petrel, Chile

Ph.D. Research

I am interested in the strategies that breeding birds use during foraging and for habitat selection.

I study the Juan Fernández petrels (Pterodroma externa) in Chile and common mergansers ( Mergus merganser) on the Columbia River, USA.

For the petrels, my objectives are to determine whether (1) adult Juan Fernández petrels use an alternating long-short trip foraging strategy during chick-rearing; (2) adults make long distance trips to forage in the Humboldt Current of coastal Chile and (3) there are any investigator effects from handling the birds. For this project, I collaborate with Dr. Peter Hodum, Juan Fernández Islands Conservancy and Dr. Michelle Wainstein, Washington SeaGrant.

 

With the common mergansers, I am interested in (1) habitat selection by breeding females with chicks and (2) daily activity budgets of mergansers. The mergansers are breeding on Rocky Reach Reservoir, a highly modified section of the Columbia River and there are over-arching concerns that mergansers consume large quantities of juvenile salmon. I am interesed in how habitat is selected by females during chick-rearing, and if their behaviours are spatially or temporally specific or constrained. The merganser research is part of a 3-year project funded by the Chelan County Public Utility and led by my advisor, Dr. Julia Parrish.

Previous Research

For my MSc (1992-1995) I studied the life history and parasitoid complex of a jumping gall wasp (Neuroterus saltatorius), a minute, charismatic gall-forming cynipid wasp living on Garry oak (Quercus garryana). After my M.Sc., I formed a consulting company (Birdsmith Ecological Research) and spent 6 summers (1997-2002) with Dr. Tony Gaston studying the breeding biology of ancient murrelets (Synthliboramphus antiquus), a splendid member of the Auk family that produces two precocial chicks each year. Working in Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands with the Laskeek Bay Conservation Society, we calculated adult annual survival, chick production, at-sea habitat distributions and studied the effects of introduced deer on the native and rare plant communities.

ancient murrelet chick, Haida Gwaii

During the winters from 1999 - 2002, I investigated the incidental catch of seabirds in the longline and gill net fisheries on Canada's Pacific coast. Working with the Canadian Wildlife Service and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, we trained observers to collect seabird mortality data, implemented a salvaged bird program to identify drowned seabirds, introduced regulations for mandatory use of seabird avoidance measures and wrote a Technical Report to summarise seabird-fisheries interactions in the commercial fisheries. Since 2002, I have continued to work with Environment Canada to finalise Canada's National Plan of Action (NPOA-Seabirds), update seabird bycatch estimates, discuss how to evaluate the efficacy of mandatory mitigation, complete a status assessment for black-footed albatross for COSEWIC and draft a Recovery Strategy for two species listed as threatened under Canada's Species at Risk Act: pink-footed shearwaters and short-tailed albatross.

 

F/V Julita Rosa, Robinson Crusoe Islands, Chile

 

CV (May 2008) (click to download .pdf)

Publications

Parrish, J.K., F.K. Wiese,and J.L. Smith. 2007. Dams as avian predator attractors and the efficacy of predator control strategies. Biological Conservation. In press.

Gaston, A.J., S.A. Stockton and J.L. Smith. 2006. Species-area relationships and the impact of deer-browse in the complex phytogeography of the Haida Gwaii archipelago (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia. Ecoscience.13(4): 511-522

Stockton, S.A., Bobechko, L., I. Buttler and J.L. Smith.2005. Menzies' pipsissewa Chimaphila menziesii: a widespread but previously overlooked species on Haida Gwaii. Canadian Field Naturalist. In Press.

Smith, J.L. and K.D. Hyrenbach. 2003. Galapagos Islands to British Columbia: seabird communities along a 9000 km transect from the tropical to the subarctic eastern Pacific Ocean.Marine Ornithology. 31:155-166. PDF

Gaston, A.J. and J. L. Smith. 2001 Changes in oceanographic conditions off northern British Columbia (1983 - 1999) and the reproduction of a marine bird, the Ancient Murrelet (Synthliboramphus antiquus) Canadian Journal of Zoology. 79:1735-1742. PDF

Book Chapters

Smith, J.L. Island invasives. 2006. In: Boersma, P. D., S. E. Reichard, and A. N. Van Buren (Eds.). Invasive Species in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press

Technical and Special Reports

Smith, J.L., N.R. Parker, K.H. Morgan, L.K. Blight, M.J. Chutter, P.J. Hodum, T. Mawani and D. C. Cunnington. 2007. Recovery Strategy for the Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) and Pink-footed Shearwater (Puffinus creatopus) in Canada [Draft]. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Environment Canada, Ottawa. 52 pp

Blight, Louise K., Joanna L. Smith and John Cooper. 2006. COSEWIC assessment and status report for black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. 71 pp. link to webpage

Seattle Audubon Society. 2006. Great blue heron, Ardea Herodias. Ecology and Conservation. Seattle Audubon Society, Seattle, WA. 12 pp. PDF link to webpage

Smith, J.L. and K.H. Morgan. 2005. A review of seabird bycatch in the longline and net fisheries in British Columbia, 1995-2002. Technical Report Series No. 401, Canadian Wildlife Service, Pacific and Yukon Region. 50 pp. PDF

Wiese, Francis. and Joanna L. Smith. 2003. Mortality estimates and population effects of Canada's Pacific longline fisheries on Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes): national and international implications. In: DFO-CWS National Working Group on Canadian Wildlife Service Report. 17 pp.

Dechesne, S.B.C. and J.L. Smith. 1997. Wildlife inventory of Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii, 1994-1996. Forest Renewal British Columbia and Husby Group of Companies. 49 pp.

Smith, Joanna L. 1995. A synthesis: fluoride monitorning programs in the Kitimat Valley, BC 1971-1995. Ministry of Forests, British Columbia. 60 pp.

"Team Trun", Isla Alejandro Selkirk, Chile

Photos, top to bottom: C. Wolf, SEAWifs, T. Steeves, C.Wolf, J. Smith (all the rest).

This site created on a Mac by Joanna Smith.
Black uses only 59 W of energy, compared to white that uses 74 W.
Source: Energy Star
Last updated: 30 May 2008