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135 Duke Marine Lab Rd. Beaufort, NC 28516
 

Lab Publications

Peer-reviewed in the primary literature
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2024

  • Larsen, G.D., Varga, H.F., Patterson-Fraser, D.L., Johnston, D.W. and M. A. Cimino. 2024. Drone-based monitoring and geomorphology of southern giant petrel nests near Palmer Station, western Antarctic Peninsula. Polar biology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-024-03243-y
  • Gray, P. C., Savelyev, I., Cassar, N., Lévy, M., Boss, E., Lehahn, Y., Bourdin, G., Thompson, K. A., Windle, A. Gronniger, J., Floge, S., Hunt, D. E., Silsbe, G. Johnson, Z. I. and D. W. Johnston. 2024. Evidence for kilometer-scale biophysical features at the Gulf Stream front. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 129, e2023JC020526. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JC020526
  • Attard, M.R.G.; Phillips, R.A.; Bowler, E.; Clarke, P.J.; Cubaynes, H.; Johnston, D.W.; Fretwell, P.T. 2024. Review of Satellite Remote Sensing and Unoccupied Aircraft Systems for Counting Wildlife on Land. Remote Sensing. 16, 627.
    https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16040627

2023

  • Barlow, D. R. K. C. Bierlich, W. K. Oestreich, G. Chiang, J. W. Durban, J. A. Goldbogen, D. W. Johnston, M. S. Leslie, M. J. Moore, J. P. Ryan, and L. G. Torres. 2023. Shaped by Their Environment: Variation in Blue Whale Morphology across Three Productive Coastal Ecosystems, Integrative Organismal Biology, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2023, obad039, https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obad039
  • Green, K.M., M. K. Virdee, H. C. Cubaynes, A/ I. Aviles-Rivero, P.T. Fretwell, P. C. Gray, D. W. Johnston,C.-B. Schönlieb,L. G. Torres, and J. A. Jackson. 2023. Gray whale detection in satellite imagery using deep learning. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.352
  • Cade, D.E., S.R. Kahane-Rapport, W.T. Gough K. C. Bierlich, J. M. J. Linsky, J. Calambokidis, D. W. Johnston, J. A Goldbogen and A. S. Friedlaender. 2023. Minke whale feeding rate limitations suggest constraints on the minimum body size for engulfment filtration feeding. Nature Ecology and Evolution 7, 535–546. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01993-2
  • Ridge, J. T., A. E. DiGiacomo, A. B. Rodriguez, J. D. Himmelstein and D. W. Johnston. 2023. Comparison of 3D structural metrics on oyster reefs using unoccupied aircraft photogrammetry and terrestrial LiDAR across a tidal elevation gradient. Remote Sensing in Ecology and  Conservation. rse2.324.  https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.324

2022

  • Pallin L., K. C. Bierlich, J. Durban, H. Fearnbach, O. Savenko, C. S. Baker, E. Bell, M. C. Double, W. de la Mare, J. Goldbogen, D. W. Johnston, N. Kellar, R. Nichols, D. Nowacek, A. J. Read, D. Steel and A. S. Friedlaender. 2022. Demography of an ice-obligate mysticete in a region of rapid environmental change. Royal Society Open Science. 9220724220724. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220724
  • Bierlich, K. C., Hewitt, J., Schick, R. S., Pallin, L., Dale, J., Friedlaender, A. S., Christiansen, F., Sprogis, K., Dawn, A. H., Bird, C. N., Larsen, G. D., Nichols, R., Shero, M. R., Goldbogen, J. A., Read, A. J., & Johnston, D. W. 2022. Seasonal gain in body condition of foraging humpback whales along the western Antarctic Peninsula. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, 1036860. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1036860
  • Gray, P.C., Windle, A.E., Dale, J., Savelyev, I.B., Johnson, Z.I., Silsbe, G.M., Larsen, G.D. and Johnston, D.W. 2022. Robust ocean color from drones: Viewing geometry, sky reflection removal, uncertainty analysis, and a survey of the Gulf Stream front. Limnology and Oceanography Methods. https://doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10511
  • Gough, W. T., D. E. Cade, M. F. Czapanskiy, J. Potvin, F. E. Fish, S. R. Kahane-Rapport, M. S. Savoca, K. C. Bierlich, D. W. Johnston, A. S. Friedlaender, A. Szabo, L. Bejder, J. A. Goldbogen. 2022. Fast and Furious: Energetic Tradeoffs and Scaling of High-Speed Foraging in Rorqual Whales, Integrative Organismal Biology. obac038, https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac038
  • Windle, A. E., B. Puckett, K. B. Huebert, Z. Knorek, D. W. Johnston and J. T. Ridge 2022. Estimation of intertidal oyster reef density using spectral and structural characteristics derived from unoccupied aircraft systems and structure from motion photogrammetry. Remote Sensing 14 (9), 2163. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14092163
  • Larsen, G. D., A. C. Seymour, E. L. Richmond, L. M. Divine, E. E. Moreland, E. Newton, J. M. London and D. W. Johnston. 2022. Drones reveal spatial patterning of sympatric Alaskan pinniped species and drivers of their local distributions. Drone Systems and Applications. dsa-2021-0050.  https://doi.org/10.1139/dsa-2021-0050
  • Segre, P. S., W. T. Gough, E. A. Roualdes, D. E. Cade, M. F. Czapanskiy, J. Fahlbusch, S. R. Kahane-Rapport, W. K. Oestreich, L. Bejder, K.C. Bierlich, J. A. Burrows, J. Calambokidis, E. M. Chenoweth, J. di Clemente, J. W. Durban, H. Fearnbach, F. E. Fish, A. S. Friedlaender, P. Hegelund, D. W. Johnston, D. P. Nowacek, M. G. Oudejans, G. S. Penry, J. Potvin, M. Simon, A. Stanworth, J. M. Straley, A. Szabo, S. K. A. Videsen, F. Visser, C. R. Weir, D. N. Wiley, J. A. Goldbogen. 2022. Scaling of maneuvering performance in baleen whales: larger whales outperform expectations. Journal of Experimental Biology. 2(25):jeb243224. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243224
  • Gray, P. C.*, G. D. Larsen*, and D. W. Johnston . 2022. Drones address an observational blind spot for biological oceanography. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2472
  • Cheney, B.J., Dale, J., Thompson, P.M. and Quick, N.J. 2022. Spy in the sky: a method to identify pregnant small cetaceans. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.258

2021

  • Bierlich K. C.*, J. Hewitt, C. N. Bird*, R. S. Schick, A. S. Friedlaender, L. G. Torres, J. Dale, J. A. Goldbogen, A. J. Read, J. Calambokidis and D. W. Johnston. 2021. Comparing Uncertainty Associated With 1-, 2-, and 3D Aerial Photogrammetry-Based Body Condition Measurements of Baleen Whales. Front. Mar. Sci. 8:749943. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.749943
  • Savoca, M. S., M. F. Czapanskiy,* S. R. Kahane-Rapport*, W. T. Gough*, J. A. Falhbusch*, K. C. Bierlich*, P. S. Segre, J. Di Clemente, G. S. Penry, D. N. Wiley, J. Calambokidis, D. P. Nowacek, D. W. Johnston, N. D. Pyenson, A. S. Friedlaender, E. L. Hazen and J. A. Goldbogen. 2021. Measurements of baleen whale prey consumption higher than previous estimates. Nature. 599:85–90. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03991-5
  • Gray, P. C.*, D. F. Chamorro, J. T. Ridge, H. R. Kerner, E. A. Ury,* and D. W. Johnston 2021. Temporally Generalizable Land Cover Classification: A Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network Unveils Major Coastal Change through Time. Remote Sensing. 13(19): 3953. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193953
  • Shero, M.R., J. Dale, A. C. Seymour, M. O. Hammill, A. Mosnier, S. Mongrain, and D. W. Johnston. 2021. Tracking wildlife energy dynamics with unoccupied aircraft systems and three-dimensional photogrammetry. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 12, 2458-2472. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13719
  • Bierlich KC*, R. S. Schick, J. Hewitt, J. Dale, J. A. Goldbogen, A. S. Friedlaender and D. W. Johnston. 2021. Bayesian approach for predicting photogrammetric uncertainty in morphometric measurements derived from drones. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 673:193-210. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13814
  • Hayes, M. C., P. C. Gray*, G. Harris, W. C. Sedgwick, V. D. Crawford, N. Chazal*, S. Crofts and D. W. Johnston 2021. Drones and deep learning produce accurate and efficient monitoring of large-scale seabird colonies. Ornithological Applications. 123:1–16 https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithapp/duab022
  • Nelms, S. E., J. A. Shigueto, J. P. Y. Arnould, I. C. Avila, S. Bengtson Nash, E. Campbell*, M. Carter, T. Collins, R. Currey, C. Domit, V. Franco-Trecu, M. Fuentes, E. L. Gilman, R. Harcourt, E. Hines, A. Rus Hoelzel, S. Hooker, D. W. Johnston, N. Kelkar, J. Kiszka, K. Laidre, J. Mangel, H. Marsh, S. Maxwell, A. Booth Onoufriou, D. Palacios, G. Pierce, L. S. Ponnampalam, L. J. Porter, D. Russell, K. Stockin, D. Sutaria, N. Wambiji, C. Weir, B. Wilson and B. Godley. 2021. Marine mammal conservation: Over the horizon. Endangered Species Research. 44:291-325. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01115
  • den Heyer, C., D. Bowen, J. Dale, J-F. Gosselin, M. O. Hammill, D. W. Johnston, S. Lang, K. Murray, G. Stenson, S. Wood. 2020. Contrasting trends in gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) pup production throughout the increasing northwest Atlantic metapopulation. Marine Mammal Science. 37:611– 630 https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12773

2020

  • DiGiacomo, A. E.*, W. E. Harrison, D. W. Johnston and J. T. Ridge. 2020. Elasmobranch use of nearshore estuarine habitats responds to fine-scale, intra-seasonal environmental variation: Observing coastal shark density in a temperate estuary utilizing unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS). Drones. 4(4): 74. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones4040074
  • Bird, C. N.*, A. H. Dawn*, J. Dale, and D. W. Johnston, 2020. A semi-automated method for estimating Adelie penguin colony abundance from a fusion of multispectral and thermal imagery collected with unoccupied aircraft systems. Remote Sensing. 12(22):3692. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223692
  • Linsky, J. M. J., Wilson, N., Cade, D. E., Goldbogen, J. A., Johnston, D. W., & Friedlaender, A. S. (2020). The scale of the whale: Using video-tag data to evaluate sea-surface ice concentration from the perspective of individual Antarctic minke whales. Animal Biotelemetry, 8(1), 31. doi:10.1186/s40317-020-00218-8
  • Raoult, V., Colefax, A. P., Allan, B. M., Cagnazzi, D., Castelblanco-Martinez, N., Ierodiaconou, D., Johnston, D. W., Landeo-Yauri, S., Lyons, M., Pirotta, V., Schofield, G., & Butcher, P. A. (2020). Operational Protocols for the Use of Drones in Marine Animal Research. Drones, 4(4), 64. doi:10.3390/drones4040064
  • Bird, C.N. and K.C. Bierlich*. (2020). CollatriX: A GUI to collate MorphMetriX outputs. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(51), 2328. doi:10.21105/joss.02328
  • DiGiacomo, A.E., Bird, C.N., Pan, V.G., Dobroski, K., Atkins-Davis, C., Johnston, D.W., Ridge, J.T. 2020. Modeling Salt Marsh Vegetation Height Using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems and Structure from Motion. Remote Sensing 12:2333. doi:10.3390/res12142333
  • Ridge, J.T. & Johnston, D.W. 2020. Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Marine Ecosystem Restoration. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7(June), 1-14. doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00438
  • Straub, J.A., Rodriguez, A.B., Luettich, R.A., Moore, L.J., Itzkin, M., Ridge, J.T., Seymour, A.C., Johnston, D.W., Theuerkauf, E.J. 2020. The role of beach state and the timing of pre-storm surveys in determining the accuracy of storm impact assessments. Marine Geology, 425, 106201. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2020.106201
  • Segre, P.S., Potvin, J., Cade, D.E., Calambokidis, J., Di Clemente, J., Fish, F.E., Friedlaender, A.S., Gough, W.T., Kahane-Rapport, S.R., Oliveira, C., Parks, S.E., Penry, G.S., Simon, M., Stimpert, A.K., Wiley, D.N., Bierlich, K.C.*, Madesen, P.T., Goldbogen, J.A. (2020). Energetic and physical limitations on the breaching performance of large whales. eLife, 9, p.e51760. doi:10.7554/eLife.51760
  • Barnas, A. F., D. Chabot, A. J. Hodgson, D. W. Johnston, D. M. Bird, S. N. Ellis-Felege. 2020. A standardized protocol for reporting methods when using drones for wildlife research. Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems. doi: 10.1139/juvs-2019-0011
  • Torres, W., & Bierlich, K.C.* 2020. MorphoMetriX: a photogrammetric measurement GUI for morphometric analysis of megafauna. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(45), 1825. doi:10.21105/joss.01825

2019

  • Ridge, J.T., Gray, P.C.*, Windle A., Johnston, D.W. 2019. Deep learning for coastal resource conservation: automating detection of shellfish reefs. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation. In Press. doi:10.1002/rse2.134
  • Kerner, H.R., Wagstaff, K.L., Bue, B., and Gray, P.C. 2019. Toward Generalized Change Detection on Planetary Surfaces with Convolutional Autoencoders and Transfer Learning. Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2019.2936771
  • Windle, Anna E., Sarah Poulin, David W. Johnston, Justin T. Ridge. 2019. Rapid and non-destructive monitoring of oyster reef habitat using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS). Remote Sensing 11: 2394. doi:10.3390/rs11202394
  • Nowlin, M. B., Roady, S. E., Newton, E., & Johnston, D. W. (2019). Applying Unoccupied Aircraft Systems to Study Human Behavior in Marine Science and Conservation Programs. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00567
  • Gough, W.T., Segre, P.S., Bierlich, K.C.*, Cade, D.E., Potvin, J., Fish, F.E., Dale, J., di Clemente, J., Friedlaender, A.S., Johnston, D.W.*, & Kahane-Rapport, S.R. 2019. Scaling of swimming performance in baleen whales. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(20). doi:10.1242/jeb.204172
  • Seymour A. C., J. T. Ridge, E. Newton, A. B. Rodriguez and D. W. Johnston. 2019. Geomorphic response of inlet barrier islands to storms. Geomorphology. 339:127-140. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.04.021
  • Gray P. C., K. C. Bierlich*, S. A. Mantell, A. S. Friedlaender, J. A. Goldbogen and D. W. Johnston. 2019. Drones and convolutional neural networks facilitate automated and accurate cetacean species identification and photogrammetry. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13246

2018

  • Windle A. E.*, D. S. Hooley *, and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Robotic Vehicles Enable High-Resolution Light Pollution Sampling of Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches. Front. Mar. Sci. 5:702. doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00493
  • Gray P. C.*, A. B. Fleishman,D. J. Klein, W. W. McKow, K. J. Lohmann, and D. W. Johnston. 2018. A convolutional neural network for detecting sea turtles in drone imagery. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13132
  • Gray P. C*., J. T. Ridge, S. K. Poulin*, A. C. Seymour, A. M. Schwantes*, J. J. Swenson and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Integrating drone imagery into high resolution satellite remote sensing assessments of estuarine environments.Remote Sensing. 10(8):1257. doi:10.3390/rs10081257
  • Arona, L.*, J. Dale, S. Heaslip, M. O. Hammill and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Assessing the disturbance potential of small unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS) on gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) at breeding colonies in Nova Scotia, Canada.PeerJ 6:e4467. doi:10.7717/peerj.4467
  • Bierlich, K.C., Miller, C., DeForce, E., Friedlaender, A. S., Johnston, D. W.and Apprill, A. 2018. Temporal and regional variability in the skin microbiome of humpback whales along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 84(5), e02574-17. doi:10.1128/AEM.02574-17
  • Rees, A.F., L. Avens, K. Ballorain, E. Bevan, A. C. Broderick, R. R. Carthy, M. Christianen, G. Duclos, M. R. Heithaus, D. W. Johnston, J. C. Mangel, F. Paladino, K. Pendoley, R. D. Reina, N.J. Robinson, R. Ryan, S. T. Sykora-Bodie*, D. Tilley, M. R. Varela, E. R. Whitman, P. A. Whittock, T. Wibbels, B. J. Godley, 2018. The potential of unmanned aerial systems for sea turtle research and conservation: a review and future directions.Endangered Species Research 35: 81–100. doi:10.3354/esr00877
  • Seymour, A. C*., J. T. Ridge, A. B. Rodriguez, E. Newton, J. Dale and D. W. Johnston. 2018. Deploying fixed wing unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) for coastal morphology assessment and management. Journal of Coastal Research. doi: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-17-00088.1

2017

  • Sykora-Bodie, S. T*., V. Bezy, D. W. Johnston, E. Newton* and K. J. Lohmann. 2017. Quantifying nearshore sea turtle densities: Applications of unmanned aerial systems for population assessments.Scientific Reports. 7:17690. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17719-x
  • Johnston, D. W., J. Dale, K. T. Murray, E. Josephson, E. Newton and S. Wood. 2017. Comparing occupied and unoccupied aircraft surveys of wildlife populations: Assessing the gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) breeding colony on Muskeget Island, USA.Journal of Unmanned Vehicle systems. 5:178–191. doi:10.1139/juvs-2017-0012
  • Moxley, J. H*., A. Bogomolni, M. O Hammill, K. Moore, M. Polito, L. Sette, B. Sharp, G. Waring, J. Gilbert, P. Halphin and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Google Haul Out: Earth observation imagery and digital aerial surveys in coastal wildlife management and abundance estimation.Bioscience. bix059. doi:10.1093/biosci/bix059
  • Seymour, A. C*. J. Dale, M. O. Hammill, P. N. Halpin and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Automated detection and enumeration of marine wildlife using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and thermal imagery.Scientific Reports. 7:45127. doi:10.1038/srep45127
  • Hammill, M. O., J. Dale, G .B. Stenson, C. den Heyer, J.-F. Gosselin, P. Leblanc and D. W. Johnston. 2017. Comparison of methods to estimate grey seal pup production at different colonies. DFO Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Research Document. 2017/041:iv–19.
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