Audrey Taylor
About
I am broadly trained as a wildlife ecologist and have studied species as diverse as bats, bison, and birds throughout my career. I have also worked in a variety of freshwater and marine ecosystems across the US and abroad. I spent 10 years working as a biologist for US Fish & Wildlife Service and US Geological Survey before landing a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), where I taught Environmental Science, Environmental Field Methods, and Conservation Biology and had an active avian ecology research lab. My graduate students and I investigated research questions related to abundance, distribution, habitat use, and migration patterns of coastal and wetland birds across Alaska. I also became interested/versed in applications of participatory science methodology (also known as community or citizen science) and served on the Board of Directors of the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S., an Alaska-based nonprofit that facilitates collaborative, inclusive Arctic science. I left UAA in 2022 to pursue a family goal of sailing across the Pacific Ocean from Bellingham to Australia. Three years, 10 countries, and 16,000 ocean miles later, I am happy to be back in the Pacific Northwest and thrilled to be teaching at WWU. In my spare time I enjoy running, biking, paddling, knitting, and of course, sailing in the San Juans and beyond.
Education
Publications
Linscott, J.A., E. Basso, R. Bathrick, and 40 additional authors in alphabetical order. (2024). The Amazon Basin’s rivers and lakes support Nearctic-breeding shorebirds during southward migration. Ornithological Applications 126:duae034.
Harrison, A.-L., C. Stenzel, A. Anderson, J. Howell, R. Lanctot, and 67 additional authors in alphabetical order. (2024). The collective application of shorebird tracking data to conservation. bioRxiv 2024.01.30.576574.
Richardson, R.M., C.L. Amundson, J.A. Johnson, M.D. Romano, A.R. Taylor, M.D. Fleming, and S.M. Matsuoka (2023). Rapid population decline in McKay’s Bunting, an Alaskan endemic, highlights the species’ current status relative to international standards for vulnerable species. Ornithological Applications:duad064.
McDuffie, L.A., Christie, K.S., Taylor, A.R., Nol, E., Friis, C., Harwood, C.M., Rausch, J., Laliberte, B., Gesmundo, C., Wright, J.R., and Johnson, J.A. (2022). Flyway-scale GPS tracking reveals migratory routes and key stopover and non-breeding locations of Lesser Yellowlegs. Ecology and Evolution 12:e9495.
Taylor, A.R., M.A. Bishop, A. Schaefer, R. Porter, and K. Sowl. (2022) Using geolocator data to address changes in migration patterns for Black Turnstone. Animal Migration 9:1-13. DOI 10.1515/ami-2022-0118.
McDuffie, L.A., K.S. Christie, A-L. Harrison, A.R. Taylor, B.A. Andres, B. Laliberte, and J.A. Johnson. (2022) Eastern-breeding Lesser Yellowlegs are more likely than western-breeding birds to visit areas with high shorebird hunting during southward migration. Ornithological Applications 124:duab061.
Hagelin, J.C., M.T. Hallworth, C.P. Barger, J.A. Johnson, K.A. DuBour, G. Pendelton, L.H. DeCicco, L.A. McDuffie, S.M. Matsuoka, M.A. Snively, P.P. Marra, and A.R. Taylor. (2022) Revealing migratory path, important stopovers, and non-breeding areas of a boreal songbird in steep decline. Animal Migration 8:168-191.
Schwoerer, T., T. Davis, O. Lee, A. Martin, C.P.H. Mulder, K.V. Spellman, A.R. Taylor, and G. Winter. (2021) Harnessing the power of community science to address data gaps for Arctic observing: invasive species in Alaska as case examples. Arctic 74 Suppl. 1:1-14.; DOI 10.14430/arctic73773
Taylor, A.R., Þ. Barðadóttir, S. Auffret, A. Bombosch, A. Cusick, E. Falk, A. Lynnes. (2019) Arctic expedition cruise tourism and citizen science: a vision for the future of polar tourism Journal of Tourism Futures 6: 102-111.
Bulla, M., J. Reneerkens, E.L. Weiser, A. Sokolov, A. R. Taylor, and 55 additional authors. (2019) Comment on “Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds.” Science 364: eaaw8529; DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw8529.
McDuffie, L., J. Hagelin, G. Pendleton, M. Snively, and A. R. Taylor. (2019) Citizen science observations reveal long-term population trends in Common and Pacific Loon in urbanized Alaska. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 10(1):148–162; DOI 10.3996/082018-NAF-002.