Recent Lab Publications

Bierlich K. C.*, J. Hewitt, C. N. Bird*, R. S. Schick, A. S. Friedlaender, L. G. Torres, J. Dale, J. A. Goldbogen, A. J. Read, J. Calambokidis and D. W. Johnston. 2021. Comparing Uncertainty Associated With 1-, 2-, and 3D Aerial Photogrammetry-Based Body Condition Measurements of Baleen Whales. Front. Mar. Sci. 8:749943. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.749943

Savoca, M. S., M. F. Czapanskiy,* S. R. Kahane-Rapport*, W. T. Gough*, J. A. Falhbusch*, K. C. Bierlich*, P. S. Segre, J. Di Clemente, G. S. Penry, D. N. Wiley, J. Calambokidis, D. P. Nowacek, D. W. Johnston, N. D. Pyenson, A. S. Friedlaender, E. L. Hazen and J. A. Goldbogen. 2021. Measurements of baleen whale prey consumption higher than previous estimates. Nature. 599:85–90. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03991-5

Gray, P. C.*, D. F. Chamorro, J. T. Ridge, H. R. Kerner, E. A. Ury,* and D. W. Johnston 2021. Temporally Generalizable Land Cover Classification: A Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network Unveils Major Coastal Change through Time. Remote Sensing. 13(19): 3953. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193953

Shero, M.R., J. Dale, A. C. Seymour, M. O. Hammill, A. Mosnier, S. Mongrain, and D. W. Johnston. 2021. Tracking wildlife energy dynamics with unoccupied aircraft systems and three-dimensional photogrammetry. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 122458-2472. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13719

Bierlich KC*, R. S. Schick, J. Hewitt, J. Dale, J. A. Goldbogen, A. S. Friedlaender and D. W. Johnston. 2021. Bayesian approach for predicting photogrammetric uncertainty in morphometric measurements derived from drones. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 673:193-210. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13814

Hayes, M. C., P. C. Gray*, G. Harris, W. C. Sedgwick, V. D. Crawford, N. Chazal*, S. Crofts and D. W. Johnston 2021. Drones and deep learning produce accurate and efficient monitoring of large-scale seabird colonies. Ornithological Applications. 123:1–16 https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithapp/duab022

Nelms, S. E., J. A. Shigueto, J. P. Y. Arnould, I. C. Avila, S. Bengtson Nash, E. Campbell*, M. Carter, T. Collins, R. Currey, C. Domit, V. Franco-Trecu, M. Fuentes, E. L. Gilman, R. Harcourt, E. Hines, A. Rus Hoelzel, S. Hooker, D. W. Johnston, N. Kelkar, J. Kiszka, K. Laidre, J. Mangel, H. Marsh, S. Maxwell, A. Booth Onoufriou, D. Palacios, G. Pierce, L. S. Ponnampalam, L. J. Porter, D. Russell, K. Stockin, D. Sutaria, N. Wambiji, C. Weir, B. Wilson and B. Godley. 2021. Marine mammal conservation: Over the horizon. Endangered Species Research. 44:291-325. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01115

den Heyer, C., D. Bowen, J. Dale, J-F. Gosselin, M. O. Hammill, D. W. Johnston, S. Lang, K. Murray, G. Stenson, S. Wood. 2020. Contrasting trends in gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) pup production throughout the increasing northwest Atlantic metapopulation. Marine Mammal Science. 37:611– 630 https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12773

DiGiacomo, A. E.*, W. E. Harrison, D. W. Johnston and J. T. Ridge. 2020. Elasmobranch use of nearshore estuarine habitats responds to fine-scale, intra-seasonal environmental variation: Observing coastal shark density in a temperate estuary utilizing unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS). Drones. 4(4): 74. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones4040074

Bird, C. N.*, A. H. Dawn*, J. Dale, and D. W. Johnston, 2020. A semi-automated method for estimating Adelie penguin colony abundance from a fusion of multispectral and thermal imagery collected with unoccupied aircraft systems. Remote Sensing. 12(22):3692. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223692

Linsky, J. M. J., Wilson, N., Cade, D. E., Goldbogen, J. A., Johnston, D. W., & Friedlaender, A. S. (2020). The scale of the whale: Using video-tag data to evaluate sea-surface ice concentration from the perspective of individual Antarctic minke whales. Animal Biotelemetry, 8(1), 31. doi:10.1186/s40317-020-00218-8

Raoult, V., Colefax, A. P., Allan, B. M., Cagnazzi, D., Castelblanco-Martinez, N., Ierodiaconou, D., Johnston, D. W., Landeo-Yauri, S., Lyons, M., Pirotta, V., Schofield, G., & Butcher, P. A. (2020). Operational Protocols for the Use of Drones in Marine Animal Research. Drones, 4(4), 64. doi:10.3390/drones4040064

DiGiacomo, A.E., Bird, C.N., Pan, V.G., Dobroski, K., Atkins-Davis, C., Johnston, D.W., Ridge, J.T. 2020. Modeling Salt Marsh Vegetation Height Using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems and Structure from Motion. Remote Sensing 12:2333. doi:10.3390/res12142333

Ridge, J.T. & Johnston, D.W. 2020. Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Marine Ecosystem Restoration. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7(June), 1-14. doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00438

Straub, J.A., Rodriguez, A.B., Luettich, R.A., Moore, L.J., Itzkin, M., Ridge, J.T., Seymour, A.C., Johnston, D.W., Theuerkauf, E.J. 2020. The role of beach state and the timing of pre-storm surveys in determining the accuracy of storm impact assessments. Marine Geology, 425, 106201. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2020.106201

Segre, P.S., Potvin, J., Cade, D.E., Calambokidis, J., Di Clemente, J., Fish, F.E., Friedlaender, A.S., Gough, W.T., Kahane-Rapport, S.R., Oliveira, C., Parks, S.E., Penry, G.S., Simon, M., Stimpert, A.K., Wiley, D.N., Bierlich, K.C.*, Madesen, P.T., Goldbogen, J.A. (2020). Energetic and physical limitations on the breaching performance of large whales. eLife, 9, p.e51760. doi:10.7554/eLife.51760

Barnas, A. F., D. Chabot, A. J. Hodgson, D. W. Johnston, D. M. Bird, S. N. Ellis-Felege. 2020. A standardized protocol for reporting methods when using drones for wildlife research. Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems. doi: 10.1139/juvs-2019-0011

Torres, W., & Bierlich, K.C.* 2020. MorphoMetriX: a photogrammetric measurement GUI for morphometric analysis of megafauna. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(45), 1825. doi:10.21105/joss.01825

Ridge, J.T., Gray, P.C.*, Windle A., Johnston, D.W. 2019. Deep learning for coastal resource conservation: automating detection of shellfish reefs. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation. In Press. doi:10.1002/rse2.134

Kerner, H.R., Wagstaff, K.L., Bue, B., and Gray, P.C. 2019. Toward Generalized Change Detection on Planetary Surfaces with Convolutional Autoencoders and Transfer Learning. Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2019.2936771

Windle, Anna E., Sarah Poulin, David W. Johnston, Justin T. Ridge. 2019. Rapid and non-destructive monitoring of oyster reef habitat using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS). Remote Sensing 11: 2394. doi:10.3390/rs11202394

Nowlin, M. B., Roady, S. E., Newton, E., & Johnston, D. W. (2019). Applying Unoccupied Aircraft Systems to Study Human Behavior in Marine Science and Conservation Programs. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00567

Gough, W.T., Segre, P.S., Bierlich, K.C.*, Cade, D.E., Potvin, J., Fish, F.E., Dale, J., di Clemente, J., Friedlaender, A.S., Johnston, D.W.*, & Kahane-Rapport, S.R. 2019. Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(20). doi:10.1242/jeb.204172

Seymour A. C., J. T. Ridge, E. Newton, A. B. Rodriguez and D. W. Johnston. 2019. Geomorphic response of inlet barrier islands to storms. Geomorphology. 339:127-140. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.04.021

Gray P. C., K. C. Bierlich*, S. A. Mantell, A. S. Friedlaender, J. A. Goldbogen and D. W. Johnston. 2019. Drones and convolutional neural networks facilitate automated and accurate cetacean species identification and photogrammetry. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13246

Johnston D. W. 2019. Unoccupied aircraft systems in marine science and conservation. Annual Reviews of Marine Science. 11:9.1-9.25

Windle A. E.*, D. S. Hooley *, and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Robotic Vehicles Enable High-Resolution Light Pollution Sampling of Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches. Front. Mar. Sci. 5:702

Gray P. C.*, A. B. Fleishman,D. J.  Klein, W. W. McKow, K. J. Lohmann, and D. W. Johnston. 2018. A convolutional neural network for detecting sea turtles in drone imagery. Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Tyne J. A. , F. Christiansen, H. L. Heenehan, D. W. Johnston and L. Bejder. 2018. Chronic exposure of Hawaii Island spinner dolphins ( Stenella longirostris) to human activities. Royal Society Open Science. 5(10):171506

Gray P. C*., J. T. Ridge, S. K. Poulin*, A. C. Seymour, A. M. Schwantes*, J. J. Swenson and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Integrating drone imagery into high resolution satellite remote sensing assessments of estuarine environments. Remote Sensing. 10(8):1257

Soulen, B. K.*, B, J. Venables, D. W. Johnston and A. P. Roberts. 2018. Accumulation of PBDEs in Stranded Harp (Pagophilus groenlandicus) and Hooded Seals (Cystophora cristata) from the Northeastern United States. Marine Environmental Research.138:96–101

Arona, L.*, J. Dale, S. Heaslip, M. O. Hammill and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Assessing the disturbance potential of small unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS) on gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) at breeding colonies in Nova Scotia, Canada.  PeerJ 6:e4467 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4467

Pallin , L. J*. , C. S, Baker, D. Steel, N. M. Kellar, J. Robbins, D. W. Johnston, D. P. Nowacek, A. J. Read and A. S. Friedlaender. 2018. High pregnancy rates in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) around the Western Antarctic Peninsula, evidence of a rapidly growing population. Royal Society Open Science. 5: 180017

Rees, A.F., L. Avens, K. Ballorain, E. Bevan, A. C. Broderick, R. R. Carthy, M. Christianen, G. Duclos, M. R. Heithaus, D. W. Johnston, J. C. Mangel, F. Paladino, K. Pendoley, R. D. Reina, N.J. Robinson, R. Ryan, S. T. Sykora-Bodie*, D. Tilley, M. R. Varela, E. R. Whitman, P. A. Whittock, T. Wibbels, B. J. Godley, 2018. The potential of unmanned aerial systems for sea turtle research and conservation: a review and future directions. Endangered Species Research 35: 81–100. doi:10.3354/esr00877

Bierlich, K. C*., C. Miller, E. DeForce, A. S. Friedlaender, D. W. Johnston and A. Apprill. 2017. Seasonal and regional variability in the skin microbiome of humpback whales along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. AEM.02574–17

Seymour, A. C*., J. T. Ridge, A. B. Rodriguez, E. Newton, J. Dale and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Deploying fixed wing unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) for coastal morphology assessment and management. Journal of Coastal Research. DOI: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-17-00088.1
H
eenehan, H. L*. S. M. Van Parijs, L. Bejder; J. A Tyne, B. L. Southall, H. Southall and D. W. Johnston. In Press. Natural and anthropogenic events influence the soundscapes of four bays on Hawaii Island. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 124:9–20

Sykora-Bodie, S. T*., V. Bezy, D. W. Johnston, E. Newton* and K. J. Lohmann. 2017. Quantifying nearshore sea turtle densities: Applications of unmanned aerial systems for population assessments. Scientific Reports. 7:17690

Johnston, D. W., J. Dale, K. T. Murray, E. Josephson, E. Newton and S. Wood. 2017. Comparing occupied and unoccupied aircraft surveys of wildlife populations: Assessing the gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) breeding colony on Muskeget Island, USA. Journal of Unmanned Vehicle systems. 5:178–191

Albertson, G. R., A. S. Friedlaender, D. J. Steel, A. Aguayo-Lobo, S. L. Bonatto, S. Caballero, R. Constantine, A. L. Cypriano-Souza, M. H. Engel, C. Garrigue, L. Flórez-González, D. W. Johnston, D. P. Nowacek, C. Olavarría, M. M. Poole, A. J. Read, J. Robbins, A. L. Sremba and C. S. Baker. 2017. Temporal stability and mixed-stock analyses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the nearshore waters of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Biology. 23:1–18

Moxley, J. H*., A. Bogomolni, M. O Hammill, K. Moore, M. Polito, L. Sette, B. Sharp, G. Waring, J. Gilbert, P. Halphin and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Google Haul Out: Earth observation imagery and digital aerial surveys in coastal wildlife management and abundance estimation. Bioscience. bix059. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix059

Weinstein, B. G, M. Double, N. Gales, D. W. Johnston and A. S. Friedlaender. 2017. Identifying overlap between humpback whale foraging grounds and the Antarctic krill fishery. Biological Conservation. 210:184–191

Heenehan, H. L.*, S. Van Parijs, L. Bejder, J. Tyne and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Differential effects of human activity on Hawaiian spinner dolphins in their resting bays. Global Ecology and Conservation. 10:60-69

Seymour, A. C*. J. Dale, M. O. Hammill, P. N. Halpin and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Automated detection and enumeration of marine wildlife using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and thermal imagery. Scientific Reports. 7:45127.

Tyne, J. A., D. W. Johnston, F. Christiansen, L. Bejder. 2017. Temporally and spatially partitioned behaviours of spinner dolphins: implications for resilience to human disturbance. Royal Society Open Science 4:160626

Hammill, M. O., J. Dale, G .B. Stenson, C. den Heyer, J.-F. Gosselin, P. Leblanc and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Comparison of methods to estimate grey seal pup production at different colonies. DFO Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Research Document. 2017/041:iv–19

Burrows J. A*., D. W. Johnston, J. M. Straley, E.M. Chenoweth, C. Ware, C. Curtice, S. L. DeRuiter, and A. S. Friedlaender. 2016. Prey density and depth affect the fine-scale foraging behavior of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in Sitka Sound, Alaska, USA. Marine Ecology Progress Series 561:245–260

Heenehan, H. L.*, S. Van Parijs, L. Bejder, J. Tyne, D. W. Johnston. 2016. Using acoustics to prioritize management decisions to protect coastal dolphins: a case study using Hawaiian spinner dolphins. Marine Policy. 75:84-90

Puryear, W., M. Keogh, N. Hill, J. Moxley, E. Josephson, K. R. Davis, C. Bandoro, D. Lidgard, A. Bogomolni, M. Levin, S. Lang, M. Hammill, D. Bowen, D. W. Johnston, T. Romano, G. Waring and J. Runstadler. 2016. Prevalence of Influenza A virus in live-captured North Atlantic gray seals: a possible wild reservoir. Emerging Microbes & Infections 5: e81

Friedlaender, A., D. W. Johnston, R. Tyson, Reny, A. Kaltenberg, J. Goldbogen, A. Stimpert, E. Hazen, P. Halpin, A. Read, D. Nowacek. 2016. Two-step decisions in a central-place forager. Royal Society Open Science. 3: 160043

Heenehan, H. L.*, J. A. Tyne, Julian, L. Bejder, S. M. Van Parijs, D. W. Johnston. 2016. Passive acoustic monitoring of coastally associated Hawaiian spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, ground-truthed through visual surveys. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 140: 206-215

Tyne, J. A.*, N. R. Loneragan, D. W. Johnston, K. H. Pollock, R. Williams, L. Bejder. 2016. Evaluating monitoring methods for cetaceans. Biological Conservation. 201: 252-260

Bejder, M., D. W. Johnston, J. Smith, A. S. Friedlaender and L. Bejder. 2016. Embracing conservation success of recovering humpback whale populations: evaluating the case for downlisting their conservation status in Australia. Marine Policy. 66:137–141

Heenehan, H. L., J. Tyne, L. Bejder, S.M. Van Paris, D. W. Johnston. 2016. Passive acoustic monitoring of coastally-associated Hawaiian spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, ground-truthed through visual surveys. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Johnston, D. W., J. Frungillo, A. Smith K. Moore B. Sharp J. Schuh and A. J. Read. 2015. Trends in stranding and by-catch rates of gray and harbor seals along the northeastern coast of the United States: evidence of divergence in the abundance of two sympatric phocid species? PLOS ONE

Tyne, J., D. W. Johnston, R. Rankin, N. Lonergan and L. Bejder. 2015. The importance of spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) resting habitat: Implications for management.  Journal of Applied Ecology 52(3): 621–630

Curtice, C. D. W. Johnston, H. Ducklow, N. Gales, P. N. Halpin and A. S. Friedlaender. 2015. Spatial and temporal dynamics in the foraging movements of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Movement Ecology. 3 (1):13

Roman, J.. M. Dunphy-Daly, D. W.. Johnston, and A. J. Read. 2015. Lifting baselines to address the consequences of conservation success. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 30(6): 299–302

Heenehan, H., X. Basurto, L. Bejder, J. Tyne, and D. W. Johnston. 2015. Using Ostrom’s common pool resource theory to build towards an integrated ecosystem based sustainable cetacean tourism system in Hawai`i. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 23(4):536–556

Kraska J, G. O. Crespo and D. W. Johnston 2015. Bio-logging of marine migratory species in the law of the sea. Marine Policy 51:394–400.

Friedlaender, A. S., J. A. Goldbogen, D. P. Nowacek, A. J. Read, D. W. Johnston and N. Gales. 2014. Feeding rates and under-ice foraging strategies of the smallest lunge filter feeder, the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis). Journal of Experimental Biology. 217: 2851-2854