{"id":466,"date":"2017-06-22T11:28:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T18:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/?page_id=466"},"modified":"2021-09-16T22:28:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T05:28:41","slug":"birgitte-i-mcdonald","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/birgitte-i-mcdonald\/","title":{"rendered":"Birgitte I. McDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Birgitte I. McDonald, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Associate Professor<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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\"\"<\/p>\n

As a physiological and behavioral ecologist, I investigate adaptations that allow animals to survive in extreme environments. Marine mammals and birds provide an ideal study system to investigate how animals deal with extreme conditions because of their large size variation, geographic distribution and physiological challenges they face on a daily basis including hypoxia, extreme temperatures, and fasting. Understanding the mechanisms that allow an organism to interact and survive in its environment is crucial for predicting, and potentially mitigating, their response to climate change. My research program focuses on two broad areas of research: 1) determining the diving capacity of breath-hold divers and understanding the underlying mechanisms, and 2) determining the energetic requirements of foraging and reproduction to better understand energy allocation, physiological trade-offs, and the organism\u2019s role in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\"\"I received an M.A. in Biology from\u00a0Sonoma State University<\/a>\u00a0and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the\u00a0University of California SantaCruz<\/a>. My graduate research focused on understanding the reproductive energetics of pinnipeds ranging from a study examining the mechanism behind increased\u00a0lactation efficiency with age in elephant seals, to investigating how maternal traits and foraging behavior influence energy allocation in Antarctic fur seals.\u00a0In addition to my thesis research, I was able to pursue my other research interests in foraging ecology and diving physiology in a variety of species including California sea lions, Galapagos sea lions, elephant seals, and crabeater seals.<\/p>\n

In June of 2013, I completed a postdoctoral research project\u00a0at\u00a0Scripps Institution of Oceanography<\/a> evaluating the role of blood oxygen depletion, heart rate, and oxygen management strategies in the determination of routine foraging dive durations of the California sea lion.\u00a0 I then moved to Denmark to work at Aarhus University\u00a0as a NSF International Research Fellow studying the field energetics and diving physiology of harbor porpoises. \u00a0I joined the faculty at\u00a0Moss Landing Marine Laboratories<\/a> in January 2015.<\/p>\n

Contact Information:<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Gitte McDonald
\nMoss Landing Marine Labs
\nMoss Landing, CA 95039
\n(831) 771-4417
\ngmcdonald@mlml.calstate.edu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birgitte I. McDonald, Ph.D.\u00a0 Associate Professor As a physiological and behavioral ecologist, I investigate adaptations that allow animals to survive in extreme environments. Marine mammals and birds provide an ideal study system to investigate how animals deal with extreme conditions because of their large size variation, geographic distribution and physiological challenges they face on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-faculty"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Vertebrate Ecology Lab","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/466\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/birdmam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}