
Peter Westley
Lowell A. Wakefield Chair in Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
Associate Professor
Fisheries Conservation
Fisheries Ecology
College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
2150 Koyukuk Drive
AHRB 204
Fairbanks, AK 99775
907-474-7458
907-474-7204 (fax)
pwestley@alaska.edu
Office Hours
Open door policy.
Feel free to come by.
University of Washington
Postdoc. Fisheries
2012
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Ph.D. Biology
2012
University of Washington
M.S. Fisheries
2007
University of Washington
B.S. Fisheries
2004
Cunningham, C.J., P.A.H. Westley, and M.D. Adkison. (2018). "Signals of large scale
climate drivers, hatchery enhancement, and marine factors in Yukon River Chinook salmon
survival revealed with a Bayesian life history model". Global Change Biology. 24(9):4399–4416.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14315
McConnell, C.J., P.A.H. Westley, and M.V. McPhee. (2018). "Differences in fitness-associated
traits between hatchery and wild chum salmon despite long-term immigration by strays".
Aquaculture Environment Interactions. 10:99–113.
doi: https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00261
Westley, P.A.H., A.M. Berdahl, C.J. Torney, and D. Biro. (2018). "Collective movement
in ecology: from emerging technologies to conservation and management". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 373(1746)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0004
Sparks, M.M., P.A.H. Westley, J.A. Falke, and T.P. Quinn. (2017). "Thermal adaptation
and phenotypic plasticity in a warming world: Insights from common garden experiments
on Alaskan sockeye salmon". Global Change Biology. 23(12):5203–5217.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13782
Westley, P.A.H, A.H. Dittman, E.J. Ward, and T.P. Quinn. (2015). "Signals of climate,
conspecific density, and watershed features in patterns of homing and dispersal by
Pacific salmon". Ecology. 96(10):2823–2833.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1890/14-1630.1
Berdahl, A., P.A.H. Westley, S.A. Levin, I.D. Couzin, and T.P. Quinn. (2014). "A collective
navigation hypothesis for homeward migration in anadromous salmonids". Fish and Fisheries. 17(2):525–542.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12084
Carlson, S.M., C.J. Cunningham, and P.A.H. Westley. (2014). "Evolutionary rescue in
a changing world". Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 29(9):521–530.
doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2014.06.005
Oke, K., P.A.H. Westley, D.T.R. Moreau, and I.A. Fleming. (2013). "Hybridization between
genetically modified Atlantic salmon and wild brown trout reveals novel ecological
interactions". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280(1763)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1047
Westley, P.A.H, E.J. Ward, and I.A. Fleming. (2013). "Fine-scale local adaptation
in an invasive freshwater fish has evolved in contemporary time". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280(1751)
doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1098%2Frspb.2012.2327
Westley, P.A.H., T.P. Quinn, and A.H. Dittman. (2013). "Rates of straying by hatchery-produced
Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) differ among
species, life history types, and populations". Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 70(5):735–746.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0536
Westley, P.A.H.. (2011). "What invasive species reveal about the rate and form of
contemporary phenotypic change in nature". American Naturalist. 177(4):496–509.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/658902
Westley, P.A.H., and I.A. Fleming. (2011). "Landscape factors that shape a slow and
persistent aquatic invasion: brown trout in Newfoundland 1883–2010". Diversity and Distributions. 17(3):566–579.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00751.x
Westley, P.A.H., D.E. Schindler, T.P. Quinn, G.T. Ruggerone, and R. Hilborn. (2010).
"Natural habitat change, commercial fishing, climate, and dispersal interact to restructure
an Alaskan fish metacommunity". Oecologia. 163(2):471–484.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1534-3
- Phenotypic plasticity
- Life history evolution
- Dispersal and philopatry
- Contemporary evolution
- Aquatic invasions and colonization
- Eco-evolutionary dynamics
We live in the Anthropocene, where global ecology is dominated by human activity.
My research seeks to understand how fishes respond and adapt to abrupt environmental
change across levels of biological organization. Work in my lab addresses this overarching
question through the combination of field, laboratory, meta-analysis, and modeling
approaches.
Additionally, I have pending proposals to explore aspects of the pike invasion to
Southcentral Alaska and to apply stage-specific salmon life cycle models to Western
Alaska Chinook populations.