Abby Keller

PhD Student

Education

Master of Marine Affairs, University of Washington

Bachelor of Science, Haverford College

Research Interests / Specializations:

decision theory, population dynamics, ecological modeling

Research Description:

Managing the environment is plagued by uncertainty; we can make only imperfect observations of its state, our actions have uncertain outcomes, and factors like climate change will alter the environment in ways that can be hard to predict. My research focuses on using advances in computational science to improve environmental management decisions made under uncertainty. I develop Bayesian state-space models to make inferences about the dynamics of animal populations using imperfect observational data. I also use advances in artificial intelligence to bring more ecological realism into decision theoretic models, like Markov decision processes, that allow for complex biological dynamics and uncertain future change. I value producing environmental management-relevant information, so an aspect of my research focuses on developing societally relevant and equity-minded objective functions, as well as improving interpretation and communication of decision theory to decision-makers.

Selected Publications

Keller, A.G., Dahlhoff, E.P., Bracewell, R., Chatla, K., Bachtrog, D., Rank, N.E., Williams, C.M. (2023). Multi-locus genomic signatures of local adaptation to snow across the landscape in California populations of a willow leaf beetle. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 290(2005). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0630

Keller, A.G., Grason, E. McDonald, P.S., Ramón-Laca, A., Kelly, R.P. (2022). Tracking an invasion front with environmental DNA. Ecological Applications. e2561. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2561

Jacobs-Palmer, E., Gallego, R., Cribari, K., Keller A.G., Kelly, R.P. (2021). Environmental DNA Metabarcoding for Simultaneous Monitoring and Ecological Assessment of Many Harmful Algal Bloom Taxa. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 9: 612107. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.612107

Keller, A.G., Apprill, A., Lebaron, P., Robbins, J., Romano, T., Overton, E., Yuan, R., Rong, Y., Pollara, S., Whalen, K. (2021). Characterizing the culturable surface microbiomes of diverse marine animals. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 97, fiab040. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiab040

Goffredi, S.K., Tilic, E., Mullin, S.W., Dawson, K.S., Keller, A.G., Lee, R.W., Wu, F., Levin, L.A., Rouse, G., Cordes, E.E., Orphan, V.J. (2020). Methanotrophic bacterial symbionts fuel dense populations of deep-sea feather duster worms (Sabellida, Annelida) and extend the spatial influence of methane seepage. Science Advances. 6: eaay8562. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay8562

Auscavitch, S.R., Deere, M.C., Keller, A.G., Rotjan, R.D., Shank, T.M., Cordes, E.E. (2020). Oceanographic Drivers of Deep-Sea Coral Species Distribution and Community Assembly on Seamounts, Islands, Atolls, and Reefs Within the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. Frontiers in Marine Science. 7:42. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00042

Honors and Awards

Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (2023-2027)

McKernan Award for Most Outstanding Thesis (U. Washington, 2021)

Irving Finger Prize in Biology (Haverford College, 2017)