Welch, Andreanna J.

Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Program University of Maryland College Park, MD Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics National Zoological Park Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC Ph. (202) 633-4116 Fax. (202) 673-4648 WelchA@si.edu www.life.umd.edu/grad/bees/students/welch.html Arrives: 20 July Departs: 16 August

I am a graduate student at the University of Maryland working with Robert Fleischer at the National Zoo to recreate the demographic history of an endangered seabird species. I am broadly interested in evolutionary genetics, and especially in population and conservation genetics.

For my dissertation I am utilizing modern and ancient DNA to investigate the population dynamics of the endangered Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) over the past two to three thousand years. This endemic species was apparently extremely abundant in the past. Unfortunately, the arrival of first the Polynesians and then later the Europeans, and the subsequent introduction of exotic mammalian predators, has led to a severe population decline. However, the timing and severity of this decline remain unclear. Seabirds, like the Hawaiian petrel, can play important roles in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and thus population declines can have broad impacts. I am utilizing mitochondrial and nuclear loci to investigate temporal changes in the population structure, genetic diversity, and effective population size of this species. This information will not only be valuable for conservation of the endangered Hawaiian petrel, it may also help inform investigations of ecological changes and human impacts on the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaiian petrels return to land nocturnally to breed and nest in burrows
at the top of volcanoes like this one on the Island of Lanai.