About Me
I am interested in quantitative approaches to population studies of marine mammals, particularly using integrated population models and passive acoustic data.
I received my Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. For my doctoral dissertation, I worked in collaboration with scientists at the NOAA NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center to develop a passive acoustic monitoring network for harbor porpoise in Monterey Bay, California.
From 2017-2018 I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Washington School of
Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, where I collaborated with scientists at the NOAA NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center to develop an integrated population model for Cook Inlet beluga whales.
I am currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research into Ecological
and Environmental Modelling at the University of St Andrews, where I am working on several concurrent projects, including:
Assessing the impacts of Naval sonar on Blainville's beaked whales in Hawaii
Developing an integrated population model to investigate the decline of harbour seal populations in Scotland
Improving methods to estimate grey seal pup production in the UK
I strive to produce and promote reproducible research in R. I previously co-developed and co-taught an introductory course on R for Oceanographers at SIO and co-taught a course on Computing in Statistics at the University of St Andrews.
I live in Scotland, where I enjoy hiking, reading, crafts, board games, and spending time with my dogs Juniper and Phoenix, cat Fern, and partner Dave.
Education
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
M.S. in Biological Oceanography, March 2014
Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography, September 2017
- Columbia College, Columbia University in the City of New York
B.A. in Environmental Biology, May 2010
Publications
- Jacobson, E. K., E. E. Henderson, D. L. Miller, C. S. Oedekoven, D. J. Moretti, and L. Thomas. 2022. Quantifying the response of Blainville's beaked whales to U.S. naval sonar exercises in Hawaii. Marine Mammal Science, 1-17. DOI: 10.1111/mms.12944. Download PDF.
- Jacobson, E. K., C. Boyd, T. L. McGuire, K. E. W. Shelden, G. K. Himes Boor, and A. E. Punt. 2020. Assessing cetacean populations using integrated population models: an example with Cook Inlet beluga whales. Ecological Applications 30(5):e02114. DOI: 10.1002/eap.2114. Download PDF.
- Jacobson, E. K., K. P. B. Merkens, K. A. Forney, and J. Barlow. 2017. Comparison of harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) echolocation clicks recorded simultaneously on two passive acoustic monitoring instruments.
U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-583. DOI: 10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-583. Download PDF.
- Jacobson, E. K., K. A. Forney, and J. Barlow. 2017. Using visual survey data to estimate passive
acoustic detection parameters for harbor porpoise abundance estimates. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 141:219-230. DOI: 10.1121/1.4973415. Download PDF.
- Jacobson, E. K., K. A. Forney, and J. T. Harvey. 2016. Evaluation of a passive acoustic monitoring network for harbor porpoise in California.
California Energy Commission. Publication Number CEC-500-2016-008. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2282.9680. Download PDF.
- Jacobson, E. K., K. A. Forney, and J. T. Harvey. 2015. Acoustic evidence that harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)
avoid bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Marine Mammal Science 31:386-397. DOI: 10.1111/mms.12154. Download PDF.
- Jacobson, E. K., T. M. Yack, and J. Barlow. 2013. Evaluation of an automated acoustic beaked whale detection algorithm using multiple validation and assessment methods.
U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-509, 26 pp. Download PDF.