Josh Adams
Biography
I am a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center. I am the lead biologist in charge of the Seabird Studies program located at WERC's Santa Cruz Field Station. My work focuses on understanding the distribution and abundance patterns of seabirds at sea, nesting biology, foraging ecology and conservation science. My current studies are focused in the California Current and Hawaii.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Avian Ecology
- Invasive Plant Ecology
- Migratory bird biology
- Remote sensing
- Telemetry (radio and/or satellite)
- Threatened and endangered species
EDUCATION
- PhD, Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand 2011
- MSc, Marine Sciences, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California State University San Francisco 2004
- BA, Biology (Thesis Honors), University of California Santa Cruz 1992
PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES AND SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEES
- Member Pacific Seabird Group (since 1992)
Science and Products
Identifying Kittlitz's Murrelet nesting habitat in North America at the landscape scale
The Kittlitz's Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) is a small, non-colonial seabird endemic to marine waters of Alaska and eastern Russia that may have experienced significant population decline in recent decades, in part because of low reproductive success and terrestrial threats. Although recent studies have shed new light on Kittlitz's...
Felis, Jonathan J.; Kissling, Michelle L.; Kaler, Robb S.A.; Kenney, Leah A.; Lawonn, Matthew J. Ashy Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma homochroa mist-netting and capture rates in the California Channel Islands, 2004–2007
The California Channel Islands (CCI) provide essential nesting habitat for a significant portion of the world’s Ashy Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma homochroa (ASSP) breeding population, but true abundance at this locality is not well known. Land-based nocturnal mistnetting has been conducted sporadically in the CCI since 1976, with variation in...
Adams, Josh Occurrence, morphometrics, and plumage variability among Leach’s Storm-Petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa in the California Channel Islands, 1976–2015
We mist-netted and examined Leach’s Storm-Petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa (LESP) caught during 1991–2015 at three locations in the California Channel Islands (CCI): Prince Island, Santa Barbara-Sutil islands and Scorpion Rock. Although mist-netting methods and effort varied between two study periods (1991–1995, 2004–2007 and...
Adams, Josh; Carter, Harry R.; McChesney, Gerard; Whitworth, Darrell L. Predictive mapping of seabirds, pinnipeds and cetaceans off the Pacific Coast of Washington
About this report This report supports Washington-led marine spatial planning and responsible stewardship of natural and cultural resources by the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Washington state agencies and the sanctuary continually seek the best available science to improve management of marine uses and stewardship of resources (...
Menza, Charles; Leirness, Jeffery B.; White, Tim; Winship, Arliss; Kinlan, Brian P.; Kracker, Laura; Zamon, Jeannette E.; Ballance, Lisa; Becker, Elizabeth; Forney, Karin A.; Barlow, Jay; Adams, Josh; Pereksta, David; Pearson, Scott; Pierce, John; Jeffries, Steven J.; Calambokidis, John; Douglas, Annie; Hanson, Bradford C.; Benson, Scott R.; Antrim, Liam Stomach contents of a Cuvier's Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris) stranded in Monterey Bay, California
No abstract available.
Adams, Josh; Walker, William A; Burton, Erica J; Harvey, James T. Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA): aerial seabird and marine mammal surveys off northern California, Oregon, and Washington, 2011-2012
Marine birds and mammals comprise an important community of meso- and upper-trophic-level predators within the northern California Current System (NCCS). The NCCS is located within one of the world’s four major eastern boundary currents and is characterized by an abundant and diverse marine ecosystem fuelled seasonally by wind-driven upwelling...
Adams, Josh; Felis, Jonathan J.; Mason, John W.; Takekawa, John Y. Summer-time use of west coast U. S. National Marine Sanctuaries by migrating sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus)
Non-breeding sooty shearwaters are the most abundant seabird in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) during boreal spring and summer months. This, combined with relatively great energy demands, reliance on patchy, shoaling prey (krill, squid, and forage fishes), and unconstrained mobility free from central-place-foraging demands—...
Adams, Josh; MacLeod, Catriona; Suryan, Robert M.; Hyrenbach, K. David; Harvey, James T. Population divergence and gene flow in an endangered and highly mobile seabird
Seabirds are highly vagile and can disperse up to thousands of kilometers, making it difficult to identify the factors that promote isolation between populations. The endemic Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) is one such species. Today it is endangered, and known to breed only on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Lanai and Kauai. Historical...
Welch, A. J.; Fleischer, R. C.; James, H. F.; Wiley, A. E.; Ostrom, P. H.; Adams, J.; Duvall, F.; Holmes, N.; Hu, D.; Penniman, J.; Swindle, K. A. Foraging segregation and genetic divergence between geographically proximate colonies of a highly mobile seabird
Foraging segregation may play an important role in the maintenance of animal diversity, and is a proposed mechanism for promoting genetic divergence within seabird species. However, little information exists regarding its presence among seabird populations. We investigated genetic and foraging divergence between two colonies of endangered Hawaiian...
Wiley, Anne E.; Welch, Andreanna J.; Ostrom, P.H.; James, Helen F.; Stricker, C.A.; Fleischer, R.C.; Gandhi, H.; Adams, J.; Ainley, D.G.; Duvall, F.; Holmes, N.; Hu, D.; Judge, S.; Penniman, J.; Swindle, K.A. Intra-seasonal variation in foraging behavior among Adélie penguins (Pygocelis adeliae) breeding at Cape Hallett, Ross Sea, Antarctica
We investigated intra-seasonal variation in foraging behavior of chick-rearing Adélie penguins,Pygoscelis adeliae, during two consecutive summers at Cape Hallett, northwestern Ross Sea. Although foraging behavior of this species has been extensively studied throughout the broad continental shelf region of the Ross Sea, this is the first...
Lyver, P.O.B.; MacLeod, C.J.; Ballard, G.; Karl, B.J.; Barton, K.J.; Adams, J.; Ainley, D.G.; Wilson, P.R. Correlating seabird movements with ocean winds: linking satellite telemetry with ocean scatterometry.
Satellite telemetry studies of the movements of seabirds are now common and have revealed impressive flight capabilities and extensive distributions among individuals and species at sea. Linking seabird movements with environmental conditions over vast expanses of the world's open ocean, however, remains difficult. Seabirds of the order...
Adams, Josh; Flora, Stephanie Effects of geolocation archival tags on reproduction and adult body mass of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus)
We attached 11 g (1.4% body-mass equivalent) global location sensing (GLS) archival tag packages to tarsi of 25 breeding sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus, titi) on Whenua Hou (Codfish Island), New Zealand during the chick-rearing period in 2005. Compared with chicks reared by non-handled adults that did not carry tags, deployment of tags on one...
Adams, J.; Scott, D.; McKechnie, S.; Blackwell, G.; Shaffer, S.A.; Moller, H.