I am a wildlife researcher, primarily using genetic tools to study population genomics and genotype-environment associations. A lot of my early background is in bird field work (nest boxes, bird banding, surveying, mist-netting), which lead me to my MSc program to study genomics of a migratory songbird. After my MSc, I had several seasonal jobs, including a contract to study northern bottlenose whale genomics, rearing endangered butterflies, and deploying new tracking tags on robins. Since 2021, I have been working as a researcher studying whale genomics.
GitHub: https://github.com/edegreef
BlueSky: @eveliendegreef.bsky.social
Publications: Evelien de Greef google scholar page
My full CV:
I am currently a research technician in the Garroway lab at the University of Manitoba, researching population genomics in Arctic marine mammals. Some of my recent publications are listed here:
de Greef, E., Müller, C., Thorstensen, M.J., Ferguson, S.H., Watt, C.A., Marcoux, M., Petersen, S.D., Garroway, C.J. (2024). Unraveling the genetic legacy of commercial whaling and population dynamics in Arctic bowhead whales and narwhals. Global Change Biology, 30(10). https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17528
Garroway, C.J.*, de Greef, E.*, Lefort, K.J., Thorstensen, M.J., Foote, A.D., Matthews, C.J.D., Higdon, J.W., Kucheravy, C.E., Petersen, S.D., Rosing-Asvid, A., Ugarte, F., Dietz, R., Ferguson, S.H. (2024) Climate change introduces threatened killer whale populations and conservation challenges to the Arctic. Global Change Biology, 30(6), e17352. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17352
*co-first authors
Education
Master of Science (2020)
I completed my Master’s degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba, advised by Dr. Kevin Fraser and Dr. Kira Delmore. I integrated geolocator tracking technology and genomic tools to study populations and migration timing in purple martins, a long-distance migratory songbird. During my MSc I presented 6 talks, including 2 conference talks where I won Best Student Presentation Awards. During my graduate program, I was also a teaching assistant for Biology I & II, and Biology of Birds.
Bachelor of Science (2015)
I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California, Davis. I joined internships to get hands-on experience and take more courses related to this field, including John Eadie’s wood duck program and MWFB’s songbird nestbox highway (more below). As part of the habitat conservation & restoration course, my friend Samuel Lei and I conducted a habitat assessment of a black-crowned night-heron colony in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. In the waterfowl & gamebird ecology course, my friend Morgan Wofford and I conducted a behavioral study on flight-initiation distances in wild turkeys.
Other career experience
Museum wildlife biologist (2016 – 2018)
As the project coordinator for the the Putah Creek Nestbox Highway program at the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology (MWFB), I monitored songbird nestboxes in the California Central Valley and trained student interns to keep track of nest statuses and band birds. This project has a special place in my heart, as I’ve been a part of this project for 5 field seasons, (starting as an undergraduate intern in 2014). During my two and a half years as project coordinator, I created and managed a blog to show progress of field season and other creek updates, archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180730033537/https://mwfbsongbirdnestbox.wordpress.com/
Some of my past seasonal jobs included deploying tracking tags on american robins in Dr. Kevin Fraser’s lab (2021), working as a conservation assistant at the Assiniboine Park & Zoo to rear endangered poweshiek skipperlings (2021), conducting genomic analyses on northern bottlenose whales as a contractor for Dalhousie University (2020-2021), conducting surveys in the Sierra Nevada mountains for spotted owls and northern goshawks (2017), and testing non-lethal methods with lasers to deter herons, egrets, and cormorants at a fish farm (2016).
eveliendegreef.com 