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.

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