Dr Susannah Buchan, Associate Researcher

Affiliation

COPAS Sur-Austral Research Center, Depto de Oceanografia, Universidad de Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile;

CEAZA Research Center, Coquimbo, Chile;

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA.

Contact Details

email: sjbuchan@gmail.com

Personal webpage: Under construction

Research Interests

I am a biological oceanographer and my research is focused on baleen whale acoustics and ecology. I hold an BSc Oceanography with French from the University of Southampton, UK; a Maîtrise d’Oceanographie from the University of Bordeaux, France; a Masters in Environmental Biology from the University of St. Andrews, UK; and a PhD Oceanography from the University of Concepción, Chile, completed in 2015. My research in Chile over the past 10 years, including my doctoral studies, has mostly been centred on the acoustics and ecology of blue whales in Chilean Patagonia, at the COPAS Sur-Austral Research Center at the University of Concepcion. More recently, I have started working in northern Chile on fin and blue whale acoustics and ecology at the CEAZA Research Center. I am particularly interested in how acoustic data and oceanographic data can be coupled to examine the oceanographic processes that drive baleen whale distribution in different marine ecosystems, like the sub-Antarctic mega-estuarine system of Chilean Patagonia or the coastal upwelling Humboldt Current System off northern Chile. I am also currently working on examining the acoustic links in blue and fin whale songs between study sites off Chile and the Southern Ocean.

My interest and contribution to the Southern Ocean Research Partnership Acoustic Trends Working group relates to better understanding the acoustic links between the Southern Ocean and mid-latitude habitats for blue and fin whales; the characterization, classification and detection of blue whale song types; and capacity building in bioacoustics in Latin America to support future work in sub-Antarctic areas and the Southern Ocean.

Selected publications

Buchan SJ, Hucke-Gaete R, Stafford KM, Clark CW. In press. Occasional acoustic presence of Antarctic blue whales on a feeding ground in southern Chile. Marine Mammal Science.

Buchan SJ, Quiñones R (2016) First insights into the oceanographic characteristics of a blue whale feeding ground in Northern Patagonia, Chile. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 554: 183–199.

Buchan SJ, Stafford KM, Hucke-Gaete R (2015) Seasonal occurrence of southeast Pacific blue whale songs in southern Chile and the eastern tropical Pacific. Marine Mammal Science, 31(2): 440–458.

Buchan SJ, Hucke-Gaete R, Rendell L, Stafford KM (2014) A new song recorded from blue whales in the Corcovado Gulf, Southern Chile, and an acoustic link to the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Endangered Species Research 23: 241–252.

Buchan SJ, Rendell LE, Hucke-Gaete R (2010) Preliminary recordings of blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) vocalizations in the Gulf of Corcovado, northern Patagonia, Chile. Marine Mammal Science, 26(2): 451–459.

This page was last updated on 18 February 2022