Birgitte McDonald

Birgitte "Gitte" McDonald
Alma materUniversity of California, Santa Cruz (B.S.), Sonoma State University (M.S.), University of California, Santa Cruz (Ph.D.)
Scientific career
FieldsMarine Vertebrate Ecology, Physiology and Behavior
Websitehttps://mlml.sjsu.edu/birdmam/

Birgitte (Gitte) McDonald is a physiological and behavioral ecologist as Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) in California.[1] She leads MLML's Vertebrate Ecology Lab and is known for her research on Antarctic fur seals and Emperor penguins.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

McDonald obtained a B.S. in Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1999, studying pinniped behavioral in the Cognition and Sensory Systems lab at UCSC's Long Marine Laboratory.[1][5] She then obtained a M.S.in Biology from Sonoma State University in 2003, focusing on physiological and behavioral determinants of lactation efficiency in Northern elephant seals.[1][5] She returning to UCSC to work with Dan Costa in the UCSC Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department a Ph.D. in 2009.[6] Her dissertation research focused on the physiology and energetics of Antarctic fur seals and she discovered that warmer, wetter weather in Antarctica due to climate change leads to lower survival rates for seal pups.[2][7]

Career and impact

McDonald continued as a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine.[1] There, she studied the diving physiology of California sea lions, learning that they collapse their lungs at depth to reduce nitrogen adsorption, which prevents decompression sickness and actively conserves oxygen for the final segment of dives.[8][9] From 2013 to 2014, McDonald was a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University under the zoophysiology department, where studied the diving physiology and field energetics of Harbor porpoise.[1][10]

McDonald joined MLML and San Jose State University as an assistant professor in 2015 and is currently an associate professor. She leads MLML 's Vertebrate Ecology Lab's research projects focused on Risso's dolphins in Monterey Bay,[11] Emperor penguin movement ecology and foraging behavior,[12] and the diving physiology and energetics of California sea lion.[8]

In 2019, McDonald led a field expedition to Antarctica, studying Emperor penguin colonies at Cape Crozier, Ross Island in collaboration with Antarctica New Zealand.[13][14] Her team camped on the sea ice for four weeks, focusing on their diet, foraging strategy, and habitat of the emperor penguin to better understand their physiological limits and at-sea behaviors.[15] This effort was one of the first time Emperor penguins were studied at Cape Crozier in detail[16] and was the subject of a video by National Geographic called "Penguin Invasion".[17] Using datalogging tags, McDonald and her team measured dive depth, rate of acceleration, and GPS position tracking of emperor penguins at sea.[3] This research provides an understand how the receding ice shelf affects foraging, survival, and reproduction of penguins.[18]

Selected works

  • McDonald, B. I., & Ponganis, P. J. (2012). Lung collapse in the diving sea lion: hold the nitrogen and save the oxygen. Biology letters, 8(6), 1047-1049.
  • McDonald, B. I., Goebel, M. E., Crocker, D. E., & Costa, D. P. (2012). Biological and environmental drivers of energy allocation in a dependent mammal, the Antarctic fur seal pup. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 85(2), 134-147.
  • Maxwell SM, Hazen EL, Bograd SJ, Halpern BS, Breed GA, Nickel B, Teutschel NM, Crowder LB, Benson S, Dutton PH, et al. Cumulative human impacts on marine predators. Nature Communications. 2013;4(1):2688. doi:10.1038/ncomms3688
  • McDonald, B. I., Johnson, M., & Madsen, P. T. (2018). Dive heart rate in harbour porpoises is influenced by exercise and expectations. Journal of Experimental Biology, 221(1), jeb168740.
  • Hindell MA, Reisinger RR, Ropert-Coudert Y, Hückstädt LA, Trathan PN, Bornemann H, Charrassin J-B, Chown SL, Costa DP, Danis B, et al. Tracking of marine predators to protect Southern Ocean ecosystems. Nature. 2020;580(7801):87–92. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2126-y

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Birgitte (Gitte) McDonald – Moss Landing Marine Laboratories". mlml.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  2. 1 2 "Antarctic seal pups face challenges from climate change". NBC News. 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  3. 1 2 "Videos". KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco. 2023-01-27. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  4. ↑ "Bay Area researchers track emperor penguins in Antarctica to study effects of climate change". ABC7 San Francisco. 2023-03-09. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  5. 1 2 jks23 (2014-09-15). "Take a deep breath, and dive in with our new Vertebrate Ecologist!". The Drop-In Blog @ Moss Landing Marine Labs. Retrieved 2026-05-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ "Former Students – The Costa Lab". costa.eeb.ucsc.edu. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  7. ↑ Smith, Tierney (2012-03-22). "Newborn seal pups vulnerable to climate change". Climate Home News. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  8. 1 2 AFP (2012-09-19). "Revealed: How sea lions make mega-dives". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  9. ↑ "Research Highlight: Breathtaking Secrets of Super Divers | Scripps Institution of Oceanography". scripps.ucsd.edu. 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  10. ↑ "IRFP: Field Energetics and Diving Physiology of a Small Cetacean, the Harbor Porpoise". OA Monitor Ireland. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  11. ↑ "Research – Vertebrate Ecology Lab". mlml.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
  12. ↑ "New report indicates emperor penguins are living on thin ice - CBS San Francisco". www.cbsnews.com. 2025-11-20. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  13. ↑ "Saving Antarctica's emperors: Technology follows penguins' every move". Antarctica New Zealand. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  14. ↑ mlmlblog (2020-07-09). "Living among emperor penguins: 2019 field expedition to Antarctica". The Drop-In Blog @ Moss Landing Marine Labs. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  15. ↑ "To the Ends of the Earth | Newswise". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  16. ↑ Ballance, Alison; Producer, Senior (2020-06-23). "Voices from Antarctica 5: Waiting for Emperors". RNZ. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  17. ↑ "Professor Gitte McDonald featured in National Geographic video about emperor penguins – Moss Landing Marine Laboratories". mlml.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  18. ↑ Cull • •, Ian (2023-01-27). "SJSU Research Examines How Climate Change Impacts Emperor Penguins". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 2026-05-18.
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