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Colorado State University
B.S. Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology
2019

Migratory and winter movements and distributions of Pribilof Island black-legged kittiwakes and thick-billed murres

• Kristen Gorman

Julia is originally from Houston, Texas. At the first opportunity, she traded the heat and humidity for snow and mountains by attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She quickly fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and took any opportunity she could to hike and backpack with friends and university clubs. During her time in Colorado, she developed a passion for winter activities through snowshoeing and summited four 14ers (mountains with a peak of at least 14,000 feet).

Julia earned a Bachelor's of Science in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and a minor in Spanish in 2019. She then spent the next five years pursuing seasonal work as a field biologist working for state, federal, and private consulting agencies in Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Wyoming, and Alaska. She fell in love with seabirds while working on a seabird survey in Prince William Sound and hasn't looked back since!

Julia's research aims to quantify the non-breeding marine habitat use of Black-legged Kittiwakes and Thick-billed Murres breeding on St. Paul Island, Alaska. She is accomplishing this by equipping adult breeding individuals with archival geolocator (GLS) tags that use ambient light levels to track birds' movements throughout the year. These data will be coupled with molecular sex determination and mercury and stable isotope analyses of collected blood and feather samples to determine if these characteristics are associated with variation in seasonal habitat use. Results will be quantitatively compared to those of previous studies of Pribilof Island seabirds to determine if seasonal habitat use of the study species has significantly changed, especially in relation to dramatic environmental changes in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean within the last ~10 years.

Julia is working closely with the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) to conduct this research. Project results will directly inform management of two species of Pribilof Island seabirds. Further, these data will support ACSPI in advocating for vital marine protections surrounding St. Paul Island, ensuring that management and conservation policies are informed by the community and grounded in the most thorough data available.

Pacific Seabird Group

• Rasmuson Fisheries Research Center Graduate Student Fellowship Award (2025)
• Oil Spill Research Institute Graduate Research Fellowship (2025)
• North Pacific Research Board Graduate Student Research Award (2025)