Meet a Scientist - Statistical Ecologist Heather Lynch
I recently got to interview penguin researcher Dr. Heather Lynch. She is a statistical ecologist who studies the distribution and abundance of Antarctic penguins. Heather’s lab recently took an expedition to Antarctica’s Weddell Sea:
“We collect our data using a combination of ground surveys – literally counting individual penguin nests on the ground – and drone-based surveys. The drone surveys allow us to count the number of penguin nests back in the lab and allow us a more precise count for the very largest colonies than would be possible if we tried to count them in the field.”
Recent research suggests that climate change is causing changes in penguin populations:
“We know that Adélie penguins are declining on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and we had some scattered evidence that they were stable on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. On this expedition we carefully surveyed colonies on the eastern side that had not been visited in decades. In doing so, we found that these colonies are actually doing well and are much healthier population-wise than the colonies on the warmer and wetter western side of the Peninsula.”
It’s nice to have some good news, at least for some penguin colonies. Knowing how different populations will be impacted by climate change can help us know where we should focus conservation efforts. The only way we can track these things is for scientists like Heather to keep doing this work. I asked her about future expeditions:
“The exciting thing about Antarctic field work is that the next field season is always around the corner. There are many distant places that we want to get to, many enormous and largely unknown penguin colonies to survey. I’m not sure exactly where we will go next season but it’s always exciting! In the meantime, we will spend the rest of the spring and summer trying to analyze all the data collected this last field season.”
Lastly, I asked Heather to tell me how she ended up doing penguin research and if she had any advice for students who might want to do this someday:
“Penguins are great, but what I really love is statistics and what is now called “data science.” I love getting into the numbers and seeing what they tell us about Antarctica. I was very lucky to attend a science and technology focused magnet high school, so I had an excellent preparation for studying physics in college. As a kid in high school and then college, physics seemed like the hardest thing I could tackle, and I did that. And then combining that with biology seemed hard, so I did that. And working in Antarctica is super hard, so I do that. I’m game for pretty much anything that seems difficult.
“If you have any numerical skills at all, getting really good at math and computers is a ticket to anywhere, including fields like ecology where you wouldn’t think those skills would be valued. But if you just really don’t like math but want to do research outdoors studying wildlife, then you can’t do better than just getting outdoors.
“Be the person who takes the hardest, most grueling assignments (field biology is 90% about dealing with heat, cold, tiredness, boredom, poison ivy, snakes, whatever; so much of success comes down to thinking clearly under bad conditions). Eventually, you’ll develop a reputation as someone who can handle themselves in wilderness settings and then you are super in demand. I have a huge amount of respect for people who come to this work this second route, since that was so different from my own path.”
Heather, thank you for sharing your work and expertise! It definitely makes me want to sign up for a physics class, and also just go for a hike and experience nature.