Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Accounting for Externalities | Dee Boersma | TEDxRainier TEDx Talks TEDx Talks Subscribe 1,980,721 Published on Jan 27, 2015

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. In this important, informative and impassioned talk, Dee Boesma makes the case for considering the costs that other species and our environment bears in exchange for much of the profits our companies make.

Dubbed the “Jane Goodall of penguins” by the New York Times, seabirds are Dee Boersma’s passion. She considers penguins “marine sentinels,” sounding the alarm on environmental threats to ocean ecosystems. For over 30 years, she has been the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s study of Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo, Argentina, home of the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins. Boersma and her students follow the lives of individual penguins, monitor the colony, and develop the data needed to plan effective conservation efforts. In the Galápagos Islands, she is building “condos” to increase the Galápagos penguin population.

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Boersma,P. Dee

Professor
boersma@uw.edu
(206) 616-2185 (office)
(206) 616-4054 (lab)

Research Overview

Professor Boersma's academic research is in the area of conservation biology and has focused on seabirds as indicators of environmental change.

Since 1982, she has directed the Magellanic Penguin Project at Punta Tombo, Argentina, in her role as a scientific fellow for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Over the past 23 years, she has carried out research on Magellanic penguins in the South Atlantic, assessing their biological characteristics and the effects of human perturbations and policy changes on their survival.

Biography

Dr. Boersma received her B.Sc. Honors from Central Michigan University in 1969, and her Ph.D. in Zoology, from Ohio State University in 1974. Her thesis was titled: The Galapagos Penguin: A Study of Adaptations for Life in an Unpredictable Environment.' Dr. Boersma holds the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science at the University of Washington, and since 1998 has been a professor of Biology in the Biology Department and an adjunct faculty member in the Women Studies Department. Dr. Boersma has published numerous articles in scientific journals, and is the founder and current Executive Editor of Conservation, an award-winning conservation magazine she launched in 2000. She recently co-edited the book “Penguins: Natural History and Conservation.”

Selected Publications

Skewgar E, Boersma PD, Simeone A. Winter Migration of Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus). Colonial Waterbirds. In Press.
Stokes DL, Boersma PD, Lopez de Casenave J, Garcia Boboroglu P. Conservation of migratory Magellanic penguins requires marine zoning. Biological Conservation. 2014.
Boersma PD, Rebstock GA. Climate change increases reproductive failure in Magellanic penguins. Plos One. 2014.
Pikitch EK, Rountos KJ, Essington TE, Santora C, Pauly D, Watson R, et al. The global contribution of forage fish to marine fisheries and ecosystems. Fish and Fisheries. 2014.
Pozzi LM, Boersma PD, Pascual MA. Beach Attendance in Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus. Aredeola. 2014.
Garcia Borboroglu P, Boersma PD. Penguins: Natural History and Conservation. University of Washington Press; 2013.
Boersma PD, Steinfurth A, Merlen G, Jimenez-Uzcategui F, Vargas H, Parker PG. Galapagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendisulus). In: Penguins: Natural History and Conservation. University of Washington Pree; 2013.
Boersma PD, Frere E, Kane O, Pozzi LM, Putz K, Raya Rey A, et al. Magellanic Penguin. In: Penguins: Natural History and Conservation. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press; 2013.
Boersma PD, Frere E, Kane O, Pozzi LM, Putz K, Raya Rey A, et al. Magellanic Penguin. In: Penguins: Natural History and Conservation. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press; 2013.
Rebstock GA, Boersma PD. Parental behavior controls incubation period asynchrony of hatching in Magellanic penguins. The Condor. 2013;115(1).