Bio

Steve Whitlock joined the staff at Columbia Basin Research after earning a Ph.D. in Fisheries Science at Oregon State University in 2019. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Northland College, as well as a M.S. in Fisheries Science and a Graduate Academic Certificate in Statistics from the University of Idaho. Dr. Whitlock has worked with numerous Federal, State, and Tribal Agencies and his past research experience includes studying effects of water level fluctuations on spawning kokanee in Idaho, and Pacific lamprey spawning ecology and dam passage in the Willamette Basin. Though most of his research background is related to studying freshwater fish, he has also designed tailored models for describing populations of sea birds, pinnipeds, and humpback whales.

Research Interests

Broad interests include developing novel analysis methods and software tools to assist researchers and decision makers with challenging aquatic resource management and conservation issues. Dr. Whitlock's current work focuses on using retrospective analyses to evaluate and recommend improvements to multiple facets of juvenile salmon acoustic telemetry studies in the Columbia River and San Joaquin Delta.

Selected Publications

Skalski, J.R., S.L. Whitlock, R.L. Townsend, and R. Harnish. 2020. Passage and survival of juvenile salmonid smolts through Columbia and Snake River dams, 2010-2018. North American Journal of Fisheries Management. doi:10.1002/nafm.10572.

Skalski, J.R. and S.L. Whitlock. 2020. Vitality models found useful in modeling tag-failure times in acoustic-tag survival studies. Animal Biotelemetry 8(1),1-10. doi: 10.1186/s40317-020-00213-zc.

Whitlock, S.L., J.N. Womble, and J.T. Peterson. 2020. Modelling pinniped abundance and distribution using counts at terrestrial sites and in-water sightings. Ecological Modelling. 420(108965):1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2020.108965.

Whitlock, S.L., T.M. Lewis, and J.T. Peterson. 2019. Using a Bayesian multistate occupancy model to assess seabird and shorebird status in Glacier Bay. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 1-17. doi: 10.1002/wsb.1100.

Duarte, A., S.L. Whitlock, and J.T. Peterson. 2019. Species distribution modeling. In Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2nd edition. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10572-X.

Whitlock, S.L., L.D. Schultz, C.B. Schreck, and J.E. Hess. 2017. Using genetic pedigree reconstruction to estimate effective spawner abundance from redd surveys: an example involving Pacific lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 74:1-8. Doi: 10.1139/cjfas-2016-0154.