Dr Saana Isojunno
Senior Research Fellow
Research areas
I study animal ecology to understand what drives individual flexibility and resilience to cope with environmental stressors and change. Within this, I am interested in how individuals manage uncertainty, risks and resources in foraging and predator-prey contexts. I have focused on free-ranging marine mammals, which as long-lived species in dynamic marine environments often rely on individual plasticity to respond to environmental change.
For my PhD and postdoctoral research so far I’ve focused on how and why cetaceans respond to whale-watching and navy sonar, using bioacoustics and bio-logging as tools with a focus on quantitative methods. I run a project about killer whale predation of seals in Scotland, looking at the interaction both from the prey risk-taking and predator foraging point of views (ECOPredS website).
Ultimately, I aim to translate my research into evidence for conservation practice. In the future, I hope to integrate a longer-term view on individual life histories (e.g., juvenile growth, survival) in my research to better answer the "so what" question of conservation behaviour and physiology.
Read more about my work at my research-outreach website.
PhD supervision
- Julia Sutherland
- Grace Edmondson
- Alexander Burslem
Selected publications
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Open access
Habitat use of the northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus near Jan Mayen, North Atlantic
Woo, K. Y., Isojunno, S. & Miller, P. J., 7 Sept 2023, In: Marine Ecology Progress Series. 718, p. 119-136 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
A sampling, exposure and receptor framework for identifying factors that modulate behavioural responses to disturbance in cetaceans
Booth, C. G., Brannan, N., Dunlop, R., Friedlander, A., Isojunno, S., Miller, P., Quick, N., Southall, B. & Pirotta, E., 9 Aug 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Animal Ecology. 91, 10, p. 1948-1960 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Beaked whales and state-dependent decision-making: how does body condition affect the trade-off between foraging and predator avoidance?
Siegal, E., Hooker, S. K., Isojunno, S. & Miller, P. J., 26 Jan 2022, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 289, 1967, 10 p., 20212539.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Behavioral responses to predatory sounds predict sensitivity of cetaceans to anthropogenic noise within a soundscape of fear
Miller, P. J. O., Isojunno, S., Siegal, E., Lam, F-P. A., Kvadsheim, P. H. & Curé, C., 29 Mar 2022, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 119, 13, 8 p., e2114932119.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Modelling the impact of condition-dependent responses and lipid-store availability on the consequences of disturbance in a cetacean
Burslem, A. C., Isojunno, S., Pirotta, E. & Miller, P. J., 30 Nov 2022, In: Conservation Physiology. 10, 1, 19 p., coac069.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
We've discovered why some whales stop feeding in response to the sound of sonar
Isojunno, S. & Miller, P. J., 25 Mar 2022, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Open access
Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds
Aoki, K., Isojunno, S., Bellot, C., Iwata, T., Kershaw, J. L., Akiyama, Y., Martín López, L. M., Ramp, C., Biuw, M., Swift, R. J., Wensveen, P., Pomeroy, P., Narazaki, T., Hall, A. J., Sato, K. & Miller, P., 27 Jan 2021, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences. 288, 1943, 10 p., 20202307.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Modeling potential masking of echolocating sperm whales exposed to continuous 1–2 kHz naval sonar
von Benda-Beckmann, A. M., Isojunno, S., Zandvliet, M., Ainslie, M. A., Wensveen, P. J., Tyack, P. L., Kvadsheim, P. H., Lam, F. P. A. & Miller, P. J. O., 30 Apr 2021, In: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 149, 4, p. 2908-2925 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Severity scoring of behavioral responses of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) to novel continuous versus conventional pulsed active sonar
Curé, C., Isojunno, S., Siemensma, M. J., Wensveen, P., Buisson, C., Sivle, L. D., Benti, B., Roland, R., Kvadscheim, P. H., Lam, F-P. A. & Miller, P. J., 19 Apr 2021, In: Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 9, 4, 25 p., 444.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Sperm whales exhibit variation in echolocation tactics with depth and sea state but not naval sonar exposures
Isojunno, S., von Benda-Beckmann, A., Wensveen, P., Kvadsheim, P., Lam, F-P., Gkikopoulou, K. C., Pöyhönen, V., Tyack, P. L., Benti, B., Foskolos, I., Bort, J., Neves, M., Biassoni, N. & Miller, P. J., 6 Dec 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Marine Mammal Science. Early View, 23 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review