Welcome to our newest episode in the Boundless Science series! I’m your hostess, Bianca Ruiz, and in today’s episode, we get the chance to talk with Karyn Rode, a research wildlife biologist from the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center. Listen to find out more about the U.S. Geological Survey, Karyn’s role as a research wildlife biologist, and current wildlife research projects in the field!
Welcome to our newest episode in the Boundless Science series! I’m your hostess, Bianca Ruiz, and in today’s episode, we get the chance to talk with Karyn Rode, a research wildlife biologist from the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center. Listen to find out more about the U.S. Geological Survey, Karyn’s role as a research wildlife biologist, and current wildlife research projects in the field!
Bianca Ruiz 0:00
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the streaming Science Podcast. Streaming science is a student driven program that works to connect you with scientists to learn how science impacts all of us in our daily lives. I'm Bianca Ruiz, a second year animal science student at the University of Florida. And your hostess for today. You're currently listening to an episode of our Boundless Science series, where we talk to professionals from a diverse set of specialties who offer a unique perspective in the field of science. Joining us today is Karen Rode from the US Geological Survey Alaska Science Center. Through this podcast, I hope you get an insight into the mission of the US Geological Survey. Karen's work as a Research Wildlife Biologist and current wildlife research projects in the field. So Karen, please introduce yourself and your role in the US Geological Survey.
Karyn Rode 0:48
My name is My name is Karen Rode, and I'm a Research Wildlife Biologist.
Bianca Ruiz 0:53
So can you tell us a little bit more about what is the US Geological Survey and its mission?
Karyn Rode 0:59
Yeah, so the US Geological Survey is the research branch of the US Department of Interior. So our mission is to provide scientific information to describe and understand the earth, minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters, manage water, biological energy and mineral resources and, quote, enhance and protect our quality of life.
Bianca Ruiz 1:29
What kind of sparked your interest when you decided to pursue a career in wildlife biology?
Karyn Rode 1:35
Well, I had a sort of a convoluted route to the field of wildlife biology, I was studying chemical engineering and as an undergraduate, and in about my third year when I was getting into sort of hardcore engineering classes, I definitely paused and thought, I'm not sure this is you know, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics are my passion. So I, I took a semester off to study abroad, I grew up in Kentucky, I'd spent my whole life in Kentucky, and I did a study abroad in Malaysia. And when I was there, I met a forestry professor. And I traveled a lot to forest and I thought I really, you know, want to do something more environmental, I love animals. And so I came back to I was at University of Kentucky at the time. And I took a semester in biology. And I took an ecology course from a pretty famous ecologist. And that sold me right there, I just ecology was really struck a chord with me. And that's what I wanted to do. And so I changed my major to wildlife biology and moved to Colorado State University, graduated there in wildlife biology, and then pursued graduate work in ecology after that.
Bianca Ruiz 2:50
Wow. And I really love hearing the different stories people have about how they kind of switched into their major before going into wildlife biology. I feel like it's really interesting. And it's never too late. When you really want to get to know something, try something new. I always recommend different to students to try different classes and kind of see what they're interested in. That's how I got into agricultural communications. I'm all animal science and wildlife. And I decided to take one digital media class, and I've decided to combine the two.
Karyn Rode 3:16
Yeah, I mean, and you think, oh, gosh, I spent all that time studying something else. It was a waste, but it's not. So. You know, I studied chemical engineering, and I use chemistry a lot. Now I work with stable isotopes, which is a really common technique for studying feeding ecology and trophic interactions. So you know, it makes you unique. So yeah, it isn't ever too late. Because, you know, you still bring what you learned with you, and your other field and kind of maybe apply things in a way that no one else has before you so.
Bianca Ruiz 3:50
So I know you're talking about how you focus on wildlife research in the field, how have you seen the field of wildlife research change over time during your work?
Karyn Rode 3:59
So I mean, I've really been active in the field, when I started my, my master's degree in 97. So I've been around a little bit, but I haven't really been, you know, employed in the field a really long time. But I think just even from seeing people before me, and then where it's gone from their time, and my time is, I think the fields a lot more quantitative than it used to be. You know, I think there was a lot more people that were sort of natural historians. You know, they studied wildlife a bit more holistically. And now things are very, very quantitative. I think, also, obviously, global warming is a major issue that you know, even even when I started, there wasn't the emphasis that there was there is on it now. I think that's changed. Obviously, we have access to a lot of new technologies that we didn't so it's opening the door to things that were never possible. well before, I'd say, that's really been a major game changer in terms of what kind of data you can collect how much data you can collect and manage and analyze, oh, you know, there's people that came before me, and they gave me their files and their statistical analysis are on paper. And so we're all the like locations and you know, things that we all have digital that you can sort and do, you know, you can manage massive amounts of data that you really, you really couldn't 30 years ago.
Bianca Ruiz 5:31
Yeah, and I agree, because I used to be a part of the Florida program for shark research. And I was doing my own research on like, pass shark cases. And I was reading paper, they're all papers, oh, data, all and files back from like the 1800s. And it was so crazy to kind of see how everything's kind of evolved. And all the data we've been able to collect and how back then they were barely, there wasn't that many things being recorded on each case, everything was kind of filed off, you'll kind of have just a brief like one or two sentence summary about the case, compared to now where we have everything on data on Excel, or we kind of document everything where was the sharp what type of sharp distance from land, it's kind of not only in the field of wildlife biology or science, because I feel like in all general fields, kind of that advancement that technology has kind of given us to kind of improve in our field and keep moving forward.
Karyn Rode 6:24
Yeah, I mean, I think it allows a level of complexity and our understanding of systems that's so much more than what could be could be done before because you can analyze such large, large amounts of data and collect a lot of data a lot faster, and then you could in the past.
Bianca Ruiz 6:46
And I feel like technology is not only one of the things have been changing, but like overall challenges that people face in the field. So what are some challenges that wildlife populations face today?
Karyn Rode 6:55
I think, you know, the biggest overarching challenge is increased human population growth. I mean, just in my lifetime alone, you know, it's doubling. And so, you know, that's human encroachment into animal habitats, and our impacts on the earth through global warming. And so trying to find ways to continue to maintain healthy animal populations and wildlife populations, with all that human population growth, just kind of the overarching impact that wildlife populations are facing. And that's, you know, really a big part of kind of everything I do is trying to find out, trying to understand wildlife populations in a way that helps us try to live compatibly, you know, with other species.
Bianca Ruiz 7:52
Yeah, I understand, it's kind of just kind of addressing that issue. And I feel like that's a lot of work that wildlife biologists in the field are kind of helping to address with that interconnection between wildlife populations and our own human population. So I know you kind of mentioned it briefly about what you do. But how does a wildlife biologist aim to kind of help address these issues with their research and kind of communicate it to the public?
Karyn Rode 8:15
Yeah, so I think, you know, there's so such a diversity of specific issues, where having additional information can help support wildlife populations while still meeting human needs. So I'll go back to even before I worked in the Arctic, I worked in Africa, studying primates. And I did two studies there, one was trying to determine how you could log partially log a forest and not clear cut it but kick out some trees needed for various reasons, you know, resource needs of people, but still maintain populations of forgivers primates. So they were primates that primarily ate fruit were shown to be pretty sensitive to logging. And so we were trying to identify, Okay, what species are really important to fruit eating primates? And can we identify those through research by following the monkeys around and figure out what they're eating? And what nutrients are being provided? What are the key nutrients that they're getting seasonally, then you can make some suggestions on try to leave these trees. And these ones, these other ones are less needed, and those would be the ones to log. Similarly, I did some studies looking at what motivated cooperating and elephants and you know, there's been tons of tons of research on that topic. You know, trying to find ways to mitigate that, you know, again, to just, you know, avoid human wildlife conflict over crops. And then moving to the Arctic, I do work to try to understand where polar bears are going to be, where they den when they might interact with people so that people can be prepared from a human safety standpoint, but also to avoid disaster. During polar bears when they, you know, they need certain areas to raise their young or to rest when there isn't sea ice and things like that. So yeah, there's many, many other examples of, but that kind of gives you some sense for, you know, what are the types of questions we get out to try to find a way to still allow human activities and sport those but minimize or avoid impacts on wildlife?
Bianca Ruiz 10:29
Yeah, that's really interesting. And I know you've worked with elephants, I did not know you worked with primates. And it's really interesting how now you're kind of working with Arctic animal? Why does the US government kind of study these animals in the Arctic regions?
Karyn Rode 10:44
So, you know, yeah, we study in the middle and the Arctic regions for a variety of reasons. Because there are species on land that are protected in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or migratory birds on the coast. And then marine mammals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. So the federal government's involved in studying and managing and protecting these those species for those reasons.
Bianca Ruiz 11:12
So how is research of Arctic species different from studying other wildlife in tropical or temperate areas?
Karyn Rode 11:19
Well, the Artic is remote. It's mostly ocean. And then it's got temperature and light extremes that make it difficult for research. And so even very basic things that people in temperate regions have access to like a lot of GIS data that show forest cover or plant cover, or temperate surface temperatures, those kinds of things are on a much coarser scale, sometimes they're not available year round. So for example, we can get images of the sea ice only when there's light, right. So if you want to an actual image, you can get other sources of data about sea ice, but you know, imagery that we use a lot that actually shows a picture of the ice from a satellite, you can only get when there's enough light to see that. So a lot of times, I'll meet researchers who just worked in temperate regions, like in the lower 48 of the United States, and coming to Alaska, and I would have to have to say, like those data are available, those data aren't available. So you're trying to study a species out in an area where there's very little environmental data available. So it doesn't give you a lot to work with. And in terms of trying to understand like, what's driving this species. And then obviously, with it being open ocean, it's, you know, you're studying a marine system in a really remote area, too. So we're pretty data deficient, you know, so for example, for polar bears, we don't know how many seals there are their primary prey, and we don't know if the abundance is changing. And then if you start going down the trophic levels to like Arctic cod, we don't really understand their distribution, we don't really understand how they're responding to sea ice loss. So it's, it really is a as researcher, it's a place that you there's lots of questions still. So there's because it is it is really hard to get information there compared to particularly terrestrial regions in the temperate and tropical areas.
Bianca Ruiz 13:22
Yeah, and that's something I never actually thought about before. So it was really interesting to hear how it's kind of different. And that researchers that may not be as familiar studying these animals and Arctic regions kind of come into it. And they're learning like, Oh, we're not going to have be able to collect this specific data are all these important information about the environment, because it's a different location with different environmental factors and everything that's kind of impact what you guys are going to be able to collect from your research.
Karyn Rode 13:47
Yeah. And there's, of course, the challenges of it just being cold, you know, and dark. So you know, there's times the years it's really hard to do the work because it's going to be dark too much. You're not gonna have enough daylight, and the temperatures are dangerously cold, you know. So there's always, you know, trying to work safely in the Arctic during certain times of the year is challenging.
Bianca Ruiz 14:07
Yeah, I applaud you because I do not like the cold. I will say that for now. I am meant to be in Florida. Well, 100%. And I know you kind of mentioned this project of polar bears, what type of project are you currently working on for the USGS Alaska Science Center.
Karyn Rode 14:25
So I have been studying both polar bears and walrus for USGS recently. And then kind of the one of the primary focuses of most of my work is trying to identify indicators that might tell us if the population is increasing, decreasing or stable because both of those species it's hard to get either repeated abundance estimates that would tell you whether it's increasing or decreasing or to directly measure vital rates like survival and reproduction that could be put into a population model and tell you whether how you know whether the popular is increasing or decreasing. So given those challenges trying to find other pieces of information that we can collect more regularly, so hopefully I annual basis, if possible to try to keep a pulse on art, how are these populations doing? And how are they responding to environmental change, in particular, Arctic sea ice loss. So a lot of what I do is using body condition as an indicator, because there's various ways to get body condition for polar bears. In a lot of places, we've been able to capture them out on the sea ice, and then you can weigh them and measure them. For walrus, we're currently working on a project where we're going to see if we can use drones to get images that we can then measure and whether that would be related to body mass and body condition. And then body condition for these species typically affects reproduction in some way, and might affect through how big their calf is, and what the chances that their calf or their or cub was survive. And a lot of these in large mammals are tend to be more limited by effects on reproduction and recruitment, than they are by adult survival. So the adult survival rates of large mammals are high. And where there tends to be more variability is in reproduction, and the survival of young. And so body condition kind of gets at one of those primary ways that populations may be affected. So what might cause a population to increase or decrease, it's more likely to be effects on reproduction and recruitment, that you can index through body condition versus effects on adult survival?
Bianca Ruiz 16:46
And does all your research happen in Alaska? Do you have to travel lots of different regions to get your research,
Karyn Rode 16:52
We have done some work elsewhere, to where things that we couldn't do in Alaska. So I have had a study on polar bears and Western Hudson Bay Canada. We were wanting to understand how, how polar bears balanced their energetic needs, with food intake when they're on land. And what's available to polar bears on land is pretty similar across the Arctic. And so we weren't really able to do this study in Alaska. So we went to Western Hudson Bay, Canada, where the entire population of polar bears comes on shore during the summer. And they have a long term research program. And so we have done some work there recently, that sort of that we can use as an indicator to tell us about the Alaska populations as well.
Bianca Ruiz 17:43
Oh, wow. So you got to kind of travel a different areas collect all this research? Are you working with also scientists stationed in Canada? When you went for the polar bears?
Karyn Rode 17:52
Yeah. So we work directly with scientists with Environment and Climate Change Canada that have had this long term research program in western Hudson Bay, it's really it's one of the best studied, if not the best studied polar bear population in the world. So there's 19 populations, and there's actually very few of them that have ongoing research programs or really much data. There's Alaska populations, Norway, and there's some work in East Greenland, and then Hudson Bay, Western Hudson Bay in southern Hudson Bay. So since they have this really well established research program, and I have access to a lot of bears, when they're on land, it was the perfect place for us to try better understand what they're doing when they're on land. In part, because one of the most common responses of polar bears to sea ice loss throughout the Arctic is increased land use. And so that's something we've been trying to understand is, how adaptable are they to that change? Since this appears to be a pretty common response, and it's continuing to increase in a number of regions throughout the Arctic.
Bianca Ruiz 18:58
Oh, wow, that's really interesting as coming from a student who's interested in wildlife biology, it's really interesting to see kind of the different research going on in the field right now and how scientists are kind of collaborating together to get this data. As a student, I kind of want to know, what's one piece of advice you would give to somebody who's interested in working in this field?
Karyn Rode 19:17
I would say be flexible and adaptable to whatever the current issues are. Because I think, you know, what information is needed changes. Man, I could give an example of that. But I think, you know, that's, that's the most important thing. I think, you know, having your mindset that I'm going to show you this species and this area is pretty limiting because it is there aren't a lot of jobs in the field. And so you really being willing to switch gears and knowing that you, you know, if you studied primates, and Uganda, you actually can go study polar bears and the Arctic, like it'll translate. There will be things that will translate and you kind of learn Add some skills and they doesn't have to be the same thing forever. So I think that's, that's, you know, the most important thing. So, just to give an example, I mean, I did bounce around between working in Africa, and working in Alaska for several years. And I got my PhD with Alaska Department of Fish and Game and thought, Great, I'll do a PhD with left Department of Fish and Game, and then I'll get a job there. Well, there weren't any jobs with Alaska Department fishing game when I graduated. So I went to Cornell, I worked and studied elephants again for a little while. And then a friend of mine said, Hey, there's a job and the polar bear program with US Fish and Wildlife Service. And there's a lot of people retiring, the job isn't like a perfect fit for you. But I think that some new positions will open that would, you know, work for you. And so I did that I answered phones for a year with a PhD and a, and a postdoc, and our research associate position under my belt. And I just found ways to be useful and make it work. So yeah. So I think being flexible and adaptable, making yourself useful wherever you go will go a long way.
Bianca Ruiz 21:12
Yeah, and I think that's a useful advice, no matter what field you go into kind of being flexible, and kind of adapting and kind of try to do the best where you could get in, like, I was always interested in DeLand mammals, and that's kind of what I've always wanted to study. And I ended up getting into marine out of nowhere, and I've learned a lot, and I feel like no matter where I go, it's gonna serve as a really big asset, and all the skills I kind of learned no matter what are gonna translate into whatever I get into in the future. So being adaptable, kind of being flexible for what you're gonna get into, you might not get into your dream job right away. But wherever you get into kind of give it your all, and kind of develop those skills, because it's all going to be translatable later.
Karyn Rode 21:50
Yeah, it really, I was just reading the website of someone who studies whales, and they had a tip for, you know, students, and it said, you know, that you could do something completely different species, but the skills, you get what's still translate. So you might be studying mice or drosophila. And you'd be amazed how how those, it's those basic skills that people are looking for when they hire, you know, so it doesn't it's not the species that you worked on the people or people are really looking for the skills that you have. So like, looking for those opportunities to build skills, even when it's not, you know, maybe exciting or exactly what you're looking for, will still get you we're trying to go?
Bianca Ruiz 22:32
Yeah, and I agree, well, 100%. So now, as we wrap up, I kind of want to know, one last thing, what is the difference you're hoping to make in the field of wildlife biology with your position at the US Geological Survey? That's a good question.
Karyn Rode 22:47
I think, I think from a really big, broad standpoint is to have people have faith in science. So to produce really objective, rigorous science so that people feel like this is this truly is information that is valuable, and real and unbiased, to the degree we possibly can provide it. I just think science is so important, and informing the decisions about our world. And I think, you know, there can be distrust of science. And so I think like, just in a really big picture, I just feel how important it is to really try to do reliable and solid science. So that's the kind of the bigger scale and then at a more local scale or smaller scale, I'd say, you know, I hope that I'm providing information that do help make the world compatible for species to survive and persist.
Bianca Ruiz 23:48
Yeah. Well, thank you, Karen, so much for joining us today. I feel like I've learned a lot and I'm sure everybody who listens is going to be really interested in all the field research and all your experience as you became a research field biologist with the US Geological Survey.
Karyn Rode 24:04
Yeah, thank you for having me. It's fun.
Bianca Ruiz 24:09
Thank you for listening to the Boundless Science series on the Streaming Science Podcast. Make sure to check out our website and social media. I'm your hostess. Thank you for listening. For more information, visit the links in the show notes.