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Lesley Thorne

Associate Professor

Associate Dean of Research

Education:

Ph.D.2010

- Duke University

Research Topics:

Marine mammal and seabird ecology and conservation; Habitat use and energetics of protected species under environmental and anthropogenic change

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  • Bio/Research

    Bio/Research

    My research program centers on understanding the ecology of marine mammals and seabirds under environmental and anthropogenic change. I study how biological and environmental processes drive spatial patterns in the habitat use, foraging ecology and energetics of these organisms, with a focus on issues with a direct conservation application. Using an array of tools and technologies, including drones, accelerometers, heart rate loggers and 3D models, my research examines and predicts the impacts of anthropogenic and  environmental change on marine animals, and assesses methods for mitigating impacts. 

  • Publications

    Publications

    Napoli, C,, Hirtle, N., Stepanuk, S., Christiansen, F., Heywood, E.I., Grove, T., Stoller, A., Dodds, R.,

    Glarou, M., Rasmussen, M., Lonati, F.L., Davies, K.T.A., Videsen, S., Simon, M., Boye, T.K., Zoidis, A., Todd, S.K., Thorne, L.H.. In press. Drone measurements reveal differences in humpback whale body condition and mass across North Atlantic foraging grounds. Frontiers in Marine Science.

    Thorne, L.H. and Wiley, D.N. 2024. Evaluating drivers of recent large whale strandings on the East Coast of the United States. Conservation Biology. http://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14302

    Thorne, L.H. 2023. Albatrosses orient towards infrasound while foraging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (42) e2314980120 [Commentary] https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2314980120

    Thorne, L.H., Clay, T.A., Phillips, R.A., Silvers, L.G., Wakefield, E.D. 2023. Effects of wind on the movement, behavior, energetics, and life history of seabirds. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 723: 73–117. https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps_oa/m723p073.pdf

    Welch, H., Savoca, M.S., Brodie, S., Jacox, M.G., Clay, T.A., Cimino, M.A., Benson, S.R., Block, B.A., Conners, M.G., Costa, D.P., Jordon, F.D., Leising, A.W., Mikles, C.S., Palacios, D.M., Shaffer, S.A., Thorne, L.H., Watson, J.T., Holser, R.R., Dewitt, L., Bograd, S.J., Hazen, E.L. 2023. Impacts of marine heatwaves on top predator distributions are variable but predictable. Nature Communications 14, 5188. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40849-y 

    Lato, K.A., Fuirst, M.A., Veit, R.R., Thorne, L.H.  2023. Peri-urban systems alter trophic niche size and overlap in sympatric coastal bird species. Ecosphere 14:e4643https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4643

    Roberts, K.E., Stepanuk, J.E.F., Kim, H., Thorne, L.H., Chong-Montenegro, C., Nye, J.A. 2023. Developing a subseasonal ecological forecast to reduce fisheries bycatch in the Northeast U.S. Progress in Oceanography. 213: 103021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103021

    Beal, M., Catry, P., Phillips, R.A., Oppel, S.,  Arnould, J.P.Y., Bogdanova, M., Bolton, M., Carneiro, A.P.B., Clatterbuck, C., Conners, M., Daunt, F., Delord, L., Elliott, K., Fromant, A., Granadeiro, J.P., Green, J.A., Halsey, L., Hamer, K.C., Ito, M., Jeavons, R., Kim, J.H., Kokubun, N., Koyama, S., Lane, J.V., Lee, W.Y., Matsumoto, S., Orben, R.A., Owen, E., Paiva, V.H., Patterson, A., Pollock, C.J., Ramos, J.A., Sagar, P., Sato, K., Shaffer, S.A., Soanes, L., Takahashi, A., Thompson, D.R., Thorne, L., Torres, L., Watanuki, Y., Waugh, S.M., Weimerskirch, H.,  Whelan, S., Yoda, K., Xavier, J.C, Dias, M.P. 2023. Quantifying annual spatial consistency in chick-rearing seabirds to inform important site identification. Biological Conservation. 281: 109994 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109994

    Lato, K. A., and Thorne, L.H.. 2023. Sodium heparin affects ẟ34S but not ẟ13C and ẟ15N values in avian whole blood. Ibis.https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13195 

    Jordan, F.D., Shaffer, S.A, Conners, M.G., Stepanuk, J.E.F., Gilmour, M., Clatterbuck, C., Hazen, E.L., Palacios, D.M., Tremblay, Y., Kappes, M.A., Foley, D.G., Bograd, S.J., Costa, D.P., Thorne, L.H. 2022. Divergent Post-breeding Spatial Habitat Use of Laysan and Black-footed Albatross. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10: 1028317https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.1028317

    Lato, K.A., Stepanuk, J.E.F., Heywood, E.H., Conners, M., Thorne, L.H. 2022. Assessing the accuracy of altitude estimates in avian tracking devices. PLoS ONE 17(10: e0276098. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276098

    Stepanuk, J.E.F., Kim, H., Nye, J.A., Roberts, J.J., Halpin, P.N., Palka, D.L., Pabst, D.A., McLellan, W.A., Barco, S.G., Thorne, L.H., 2022. Subseasonal forecasts provide a powerful tool for dynamic management of marine mammal populations. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2506\

    Thorne, L.H,  Heywood, E.I., Hirtle, N.O. 2022.  Rapid restructuring of the odontocete community in an ocean warming hotspot. Global Change Biology https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16382

    Hirtle, J.O., Stepanuk, J.E.F., Heywood, E.I., Christiansen, F., Thorne, L.H. 2022. Integrating 3D models with morphometric measurements to improve volumetric estimates in marine mammals. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 00:1-13 https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13962

    Lato, K.A., Madigan, D.J., Veit, R.R., Thorne L.H. 2021. Closely related gull species show contrasting foraging strategies in an urban environment. Scientific Reports 11:23619 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02821-y 

    Thorne, L.H. and Nye, J.A. 2021. Trait-mediated shifts and climate velocity decouple an endothermic marine predator and its ectothermic prey. Scientific Reports 11: 18507 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97318-z.pdf 

    Borowicz A., Lynch H.J., Estro T., Foley C., Goncalves B., Herman K., Adamczak S.K., Stirling I., Thorne L.H. 2021. Social sensors for wildlife: Ecological opportunities in the era of camera ubiquity. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, p. 385 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.645288 

    Stepanuk, J.E, Heywood, E.I. Lopez, J.F., DiGiovanni, R.A., Thorne, L.H. 2021. Age-specific behavior and habitat use in humpback whales: Implications for vessel strike. Marine Ecology Progress Series 663:209-222 https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13638 

    Heim,  K.C., Thorne, L.H., Warren, J.D., Link, J.S., Nye, J.A, 2021. Marine ecosystem indicators are sensitive to ecosystem boundaries and spatial scale. Ecological Indicators. 125 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107522 

    Lato, K.A., Thorne, L.H., Fuirst, M., Brownawell, B. 2021.Microplastic abundance in gull nests in relation to urbanization. Marine Pollution Bulletin.164, p.112058 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112058 

    Conners, M.,  Michelot, T., Heywood, E.I., Orben, R.A., Phillips, R.A., Vyssotski, A., Shaffer, S.A., Thorne, L.H. 2021. Hidden Markov models identify major movement modes in accelerometer and magnetometer data from four albatross species. Movement Ecology 9(7)   https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00243-z 

    Thorne, L.H., Fuirst, M., Veit, R., Baumann, Z. 2020. Mercury concentrations provide an indicator of marine foraging in coastal birds. Ecological Indicators 121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106922 

    Adamczak, S.K., McLellan, W.A., Read, A.J. , Wolfe, C.L.P., Thorne, L.H. 2020. The impact of temperature at depth on estimates of thermal habitat for short-finned pilot whales. Marine Mammal Science 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12737

    Jacox, M.G., Alexander, M.A., Siedlecki, S., Chen, K., Kwon, Y.O., Brodie, S., Ortiz, I., Tommasi, D., Widlansky, M.J., Barrie, D., Capotondi, A., Cheng, W., Di Lorenzo, E., Edwards, C., Fiechter, J., Fratantonia, P., Hazen, E.L., Hermann, A.J., Kuman, A., Miller, A.J., Pirhalla, D., Pozo Buil, M., Ray, S., Sheridan, S.C., Subramanian, A., Thompson, P., Thorne, L.H., Annamalai, H., Aydin, K., Bograd, D.J., Griffis, R.B., Kearney, K., Kim, H., Mariotti, A., Merrifield, M., Rykaczewski, R. 2020. Seasonal-to-interannual prediction of US coastal marine ecosystems: Forecast methods, mechanisms of predictability, and priority developments. Progress in Oceanography, p.102307 

    Adamczak, S.K., D.A. Pabst, W.A. McLellan and L.H. Thorne. 2020. Do bigger bodies require bigger radiators? Insights into thermal ecology from closely related marine mammal species and implications for ecogeographic rules. Journal of Biogeography https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13796 

    Adamczak, S.K., D.A. Pabst, W.A. McLellan and L.H. Thorne. 2019. Using 3D models to improve estimates of marine mammal size and external morphology. Frontiers in Marine Science. 10.3389/fmars.2019.00334 

    Thorne L.H., R.W. Baird, D.L. Webster, J.E. Stepanuk and A.J. Read, 2019. Predicting fisheries bycatch: A case study and field test for pilot whales in a pelagic longline fishery. Diversity and Distributions. 2019;00:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12912 

    Donaton, J., K. Durham. R. Cerrato, J. Schwerzmann and L.H. Thorne, 2018. Long-term changes in loggerhead sea turtle diet indicate shifts in the benthic community associated with warming temperatures. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 218: 139-147 

    Fuirst, M., R.R. Veit, M. Hahn, N. Dheilly and L.H. Thorne, 2018. Effects of urbanization on the foraging ecology and microbiota of a generalist seabird. PLOS ONE 13(12): e0209200 



    Stepanuk, J., A.J. Read, R.W. Baird, D.L. Webster, and L.H. Thorne, 2018. Spatiotemporal patterns of overlap between short-finned pilot whales and the U.S. pelagic longline fishery in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: An assessment to inform the management of fisheries bycatch. Fish Res, 208: 309-320 [PDF]

    Thorne, L.H., Foley, H.J., Baird, R.W., Webster, D.L., Swaim, Z.T. and Read, A.J., 2017. Movement and foraging behavior of short-finned pilot whales in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: importance of bathymetric features and implications for management. Mar Ecol Prog Ser., 584: 245-257. [PDF]

    Foley, C.M., Lynch, M.A., Thorne, L.H. and Lynch, H.J., 2017. Listing Foreign Species under the Endangered Species Act: A Primer for Conservation Biologists. BioScience [PDF].

    Thorne, L.H., M.G. Connors, E.L. Hazen, S.J. Bograd, D.G. Foley, M.A. Kappes, H.M. Kim, D.P. Costa and S.A. Shaffer (2016) Effects of El Niño-driven changes in wind patterns on North Pacific albatrosses. J. R. Soc. Interface, 13:119 [PDF]

    Lynch, M.A., Foley, C.M., Thorne, L.H. and Lynch, H.J. (2016) Improving the use of biological data in Antarctic management. Antarctic Science. doi:10.1017/S0954102016000353.[PDF]

    Thorne, L.H., E.L. Hazen, S.J. Bograd, D.G. Foley, M.G. Connors, M.A. Kappes, H.M. Kim, Y.Tremblay, D.P. Costa and S.A. Shaffer (2015) Foraging behavior links climate variability and reproduction in North Pacific albatrosses. Move. Ecol, 3:27 [PDF]

    Belkin, I.M., Hunt, G.L., Hazen, E.L., Zamon, J.E., Schick, R.S., Prieto, R., Brodziak, J., Teo, S.L. Thorne, L.H., Bailey, H., Sachihiko, I., Munk, P., Musyl, M.K., Willis, J.K., and W. Zhang (2014) Fronts, fish and predators. Deep-Sea Res. Pt. II. 107: 1-2. [PDF]

    Thorne, L.H. and A.J. Read (2013) Fine-scale biophysical interactions drive prey availability at a migratory stopover site for Phalaropus spp. in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Mar Ecol Prog Ser. 487: 261-273. [PDF]

    Waples, D.M., L.H. Thorne, L.W. Williams, E.K. Burke, K.W. Urian and A.J. Read (2013) A field test of acoustic deterrent devices used to reduce interactions between bottlenose dolphins and a coastal gillnet fishery in North Carolina, USA. Biol Conserv. 157: 163-171. [PDF]

    Thorne, L.H., D.W. Johnston, D.L. Urban, R.W. Baird, S. Yin, S. Rickards, M.H. Deakos, A.A. Pack and M.C. Hill (2012) Predictive modeling of spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) resting habitat in the main Hawaiian Islands: implications for management. PLoS ONE. 7(8): e43167. [PDF]

    Dunn, D.C., K. Stewart, R.K. Bjorkland, M. Haughton, S. Singh-Rentond, R. Lewison, L.H. Thorne and P.N. Halpin (2009) A regional analysis of coastal and domestic fishing effort in the wider Caribbean. Fish Res. 102(1-2): 60-68. [PDF]

    Nowacek, D.P., L.H. Thorne, D.W. Johnston and P. L. Tyack (2007) Responses of cetaceans to anthropogenic noise: an update and evaluation of potential physiological consequences. Mam Rev 37(2): 81-115. [PDF]

    Johnston D.W., L.H. Thorne and A.J. Read (2005) Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) exploit a tidally-driven island wake ecosystem in the Bay of Fundy. Mar Ecol Prog Ser. 305: 287-295. [PDF]

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