Postdoctoral Research Associate

Department of Environmental Conservation

Massachusetts Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit

 

Ph.d. in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior at the City University of New York, 2013

B.Sc. in Biopsychology and Environmental Studies at Tufts University in Boston, MA, 2003

 

Email: hgoyert AT umass.edu

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Holly_Goyert

 

Primary Interests

Conservation, behavior, marine communities, populations, avian foraging, quantitative and spatial ecology.

 

My research interests have focused on identifying how marine communities of endangered mammals, birds, and fishes, cope with a changing environment by relying on facilitative interactions with each other. This means that the conservation and management of one mesopredator depends not only on the availability of prey and suitable habitat, but also on the ecology of other mesopredators. My work involves quantitatively rigorous approaches to modeling the dynamic processes that drive the modification of seabird foraging strategies. The applications of this research span new frontiers of conservation, with respect to offshore energy exploration, overfishing, and climate change.


 

Selected publications

Refereed Journal Articles:

HF Goyert, EO Garton, BA Drummond, HM Renner (2017). Density-dependence and changes in the carrying capacity in Alaskan seabird populations. Biological Conservation, 209:178-187

HF Goyert, B Gardner, R Sollmann, RR Veit, AT Gilbert, EE Connelly, & KA Williams (2016). Predicting the offshore distribution and abundance of marine birds with a hierarchical community distance sampling model. Ecological Applications, 26(6): 1797–1815

HF Goyert (2015). Foraging specificity and prey utilization: evaluating social and memory-based strategies in seabirds. Behaviour,152: 861-895

HF Goyert, LL Manne, & RR Veit (2014). Facilitative interactions among the pelagic community of temperate migratory terns, tunas and dolphins. Oikos, 123: 1400-1408

HF Goyert (2014). Relationship among prey availability, habitat and the foraging behavior, distribution, and abundance of common terns Sterna hirundo and roseate terns S. dougallii. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 506: 291-302

 

Reports:

Loring P, Goyert HF, Griffin C, Sievert P, and Paton P (2017). Tracking Movements of Common Terns, Endangered Roseate Terns, and Threatened Piping Plovers in the Northwest Atlantic. Annual Report to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) under Interagency Agreement to USFWS.

Goyert HF (2015). Ch. 1-2, 9, 12, 13 in: Williams KA, Connelly EE, Johnson SM, Stenhouse IJ, eds. 2015. Baseline Wildlife Studies in Atlantic Waters Offshore of Maryland: Final Report to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Energy Administration, 2015. Report BRI 2015-17, Biodiversity Research Institute, Portland, Maine. 437 pp.

Goyert HF (2015). Ch. 1-2, 12, 15, 18 in: Williams KA, Connelly EE, Johnson SM, Stenhouse IJ, eds. 2015. Wildlife Densities and Habitat Use Across Temporal and Spatial Scales on the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf: Final Report to the Department of Energy EERE Wind & Water Power Technologies Office. Award Number: DE-EE0005362. Report BRI 2015-11, Biodiversity Research Institute, Portland, Maine. 715 pp. http://www.briloon.org/mabs

Veit RR, Goyert HF, White TP, Martin MC, Manne LL, Gilbert AT, Steinkamp MJ (2013). Pelagic Seabirds off the East Coast of the United States 2008-2013: Final Report to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. College of Staten Island and City University of New York, NY