ALEC BURSLEM
Post Doctoral Researcher
I am an ecophysiologist interested in questions related to behaviour/physiology interactions in animals and their implications for individual and population health, with a focus on marine predators. I address these questions using a combination of biologging, drone observations and modelling. My project at MMRP seeks to understand the effects of multiple stressors on the behaviour, health and population status of humpback whales in the North Pacific to help focus mitigation efforts on their most important threats.
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email: aburslem@hawaii.edu​
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For publication pdfs, please visit the following links:
Biography
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​Alec Burslem is a postdoctoral fellow at the Marine Mammal Research Program studying the behavior and energetics of humpback whales. Before moving to MMRP, he completed a PhD and postdoc at the University of St Andrews, focusing on the behaviour and physiology of sperm whales and killer whales, respectively. Prior to this, he obtained an MSc in marine environmental management at the University of York and worked at various environmental consulting firms in the UK and middle-east. Alec’s methodological expertise focuses on biologging, drone photogrammetry and agent-based model simulations.
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​Publications
Curé C, Isojunno S, Wensveen PJ, Siemensma ML, Von Benda-Beckmann AM, Kvadsheim PH, Burslem A, Benti B, Roland R, Lam F-PA, et al. (2025) Severity Scoring of Sperm Whale Behavioral Responses to an Operational Sonar Source Reveals Importance of Received Level and Source-Receiver Distance. Aquat Mamm 51: 8–27.​
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