Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Marine Sciences A308
Phone: 831.459.5358
Fax: 831.459.5353
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BERNIE R. TERSHY Assistant Adjunct Professor of EEBiology Ph.D. Cornell University (Neurobiology & Behavior) M.Sc. Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California State University (Marine Sciences) B.Sc. UCSC (Biology) CROLL-TERSHY LAB

Center for Ocean Health 250A 100 Shaffer Road University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95060 phone 831.459.1461 fax 831.459.3383 tershy@ucsc.edu office hours

Ecology and Conservation of seabirds and island ecosystems

My research focuses on two broad topics:

1. The ecology and conservation of seabirds and their functional roles in terrestrial and marine systems. Seabirds are important marine predators with high metabolic rates and large population sizes. Most seabird species have also experienced dramatic population declines in the last 400 years. My research seeks to understand how seabirds affect their habitats and to develop techniques to prevent seabird extinctions and population declines.
   
2. The ecology and conservation of island ecosystems. Islands are important for the conservation of biodiversity because they are:
   • critical habitat for top marine predators and herbivores that can play an important regulatory role over thousands of kilometers of ocean.
   • rich in endemic species (islands are only ~3% of earth’s surface, but contain ~18% of all bird, reptile and plant species).
   Yet islands have been disproportionately impacted by humans. Most recorded extinctions have occurred on islands (95% of bird extinctions, 90% for reptiles, 69% for mammals and 68% for plants), and 55-67% of these extinctions were caused, at least in part, by introduced species. My research explores why island ecosystems are so vulnerable to extinctions and develops techniques to restore island ecosystems and prevent insular extinctions.

Most of my research is conducted collaboratively with graduate students and post-docs in my lab (which I share with Prof. Don Croll). We work closely with Island Conservation, a science-driven, nonprofit conservation group which Don and I founded and I direct. The close relationship between our lab and Island Conservation insures that our research is relevant to on-the-ground conservation and that our conservation work is informed by the most up-to-date and relevant science.

Selected Publications

Nogales, M., A. Martin, B. Tershy, C.J. Donlan, D. Veitch, N. Puerta, B. Wood, and J. Alanso. (2004). A review of feral domestic cat (Felis catus L.) eradication on islands. Conservation Biology18:310-319.

Donlan, C.J., B.R. Tershy, K.J. Campbell, and F.B. Cruz. (2004). Research for Requiems: What are our Priorities? Conservation Biology 17:1850-1851.

Donlan, C.J., G.R. Howald, B.R. Tershy, and D.A. Croll. (2003). Evaluating Alternative Rodenticides for Island Conservation: Black Rat Eradication from the San Jorge Islands, Mexico. Biological Conservation 114:29-34.

Keitt, B. and B.R. Tershy. (2003). Cat eradication significantly reduces shearwater
mortality.  Animal Conservation6:307-308.

Donlan, C. J., B. R. Tershy, D. A. Croll. (2002). Islands and introduced herbivores: using conservation as ecosystem experiments. Journal of Applied Ecology 39:235-246.

Keitt, B.  S., B. R. Tershy, D.  A. Croll and C. J. Donlan. (2002). Use of a Population Model to Assess the Effects of Feral Cats on Black-vented Shearwaters (Puffinus opisthomelas) on Natividad Island, Mexico. Animal Conservation 5:217-223.

Tershy, B.R., Donlan, C.J., Keitt, B., Croll, D., Sanchez, J.A., Wood, B., Hermosillo, M.A., & Howald, G. (2002). Island Conservation in Northwest Mexico: A Conservation Model Integrating Research, Education and Exotic Mammal Eradication.  Turning the tide: the eradication of invasive species (eds C.R. Veitch & M.N. Clout). Invasive Species Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Aukland, New Zealand.

Wood, B., Tershy, B.R., Hermosillo, M.A., Donlan, C.J., Sanchez, J.A., Keitt, B.S., Croll, D.A., Howald, G.R., & Biavaschi, N. (2002). Removing cats from islands in northwest Mexico.  Turning the tide: the eradication of invasive species (eds C.R. Veitch & M.N. Clout). Invasive Species Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Aukland, New Zealand.

Tershy, B.R., L. Bourillon, L. Metzler, and J. Barnes.  1999. A survey of ecotourism to islands in northwestern Mexico. Environmental Conservation 26:212-217.

Keitt, B., B. Tershy, and D. Croll. 2000. Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinis opisthomelas). In: The Birds of North America (521):1-16

Tershy, B.R. and D.A. Croll. 2000. Parental investment, adult sex ratios and sexual selection in a socially monogamous seabird. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 48:52-60.

Croll, D.A., and B.R. Tershy. 1998. Estimation of the energy and prey requirements of penguins and fur seals breeding on the South Shetland Islands and potential commercial fisheries interactions. Polar Biology 19:365-374.

McChesney, G.J. and B.R. Tershy.  1998.  History and status of introduced mammals and impacts to breeding seabirds on the California Channel and Northwestern Baja California Islands. Colonial Waterbirds 21:335-347.

Tershy, B.R., D. Breese, and D.A. Croll. 1997. Human perturbations and conservation strategies on San Pedro Mártir Island, Gulf of California, México.  Environmental Conservation 24:261-170

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