Kristen B. Gorman, PhD

College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
Department of Marine Biology
University of Alaska Fairbanks
2150 Koyukuk Drive, 245 O’Neill Building
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7220

Tel: 907-474-5930
Office: Irving II 230, Lab: O’Neill 141
UAF web: https://uaf.edu/cfos/people/faculty/detail/kristen-gorman.php
Pronouns: she/her

I respectfully acknowledge Alaska’s First Peoples and their long history of
living in deep connection with their land and water, and the historical and
ongoing legacy of colonialism. As a life-long student, I am committed to
learning about injustice, and working to improve equity in society.

Research Overview

Research in the Gorman Lab (established 2022) lies at the intersection of evolution, ecology, and physiology, thus we take integrative approaches to understanding factors that shape animal behavior (foraging, breeding, toxicology/disease, and movements), fitness (including associated life history traits and trade-offs), and population dynamics (demographic rates and population structure) to advance basic knowledge and inform management and conservation actions. The overarching goal of the lab is to develop molecule to ecosystem perspectives focusing on the integrative evolutionary ecology of animal systems, some of which are critically important for commercial fisheries and subsistence harvests. Together as a lab group, we incorporate modern, quantitative methods in our work, while honing our communication skills to train the next generation of conservation ecologists. The lab also aims to enhance the public’s interest in nature and understanding of the scientific process. We are always looking for new collaborators and students to join our program in Marine Biology at CFOS/UAF, please reach out to Kristen Gorman if you have interest in our work - a few recent papers are noted below. Thanks for stopping by!

Recent Publications

McMahon, J., S.A. May, P.S. Rand, K.B. Gorman, M.V. McPhee, P.A.H. Westley. 2025. Assortative dispersal and differences in fitness-associated traits between hatchery and wild pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Ecology and Evolution 15:e70781.

Stadler, L., K. Gorman, V. von Biela, A. Seitz, K. Iken. 2024. Does the extent of glacial cover across watersheds and discharge periods affect dietary resource use of nearshore fishes in the Northern Gulf of Alaska? Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 577:152022.

Hasan, E.L., K.B. Gorman, H.A. Colletti, B.H. Konar. 2024. Species distribution modeling of northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) in a data-limited ecosystem. Ecology and Evolution 14:e11118.

Lab News - Fall 2026

MS student Abby Host successfully defended her MS thesis in Spring 2026, her manuscript titled, Fitness-associated traits of sockeye salmon returning to a glacially dominated watershed is currently in review with the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries. Big congrats to Abby on her progress and getting her manuscript submitted for review. Abby is continuing on in the lab to work on additonal analysis and help with some report writing through 2026.

Alex Borsky is making good progress with his retrospective spatial-temporal analysis of herring and salmon catch data from Prince William Sound, Alaska. Alex won best student poster at the American Fisheries Society, Alaska Chapter meeting in Spring 2026. Alex plans to defend his MS thesis by summer 2027.

Rebecca Lavier has transferred to the PhD program in Marine Biology at UAF. Rebecca is working on an analysis of carry-over effects in tufted puffins using over-winter tracking data from the Gulf of Alaska. Rebecca will be preseting results from her first chapter of her dissertation at the Alaska Bird Conference in December 2026.

Two new MS students joined the lab this fall, Ali McCarron and Ellie Bretscher, see details below on their thesis projects.

Current Lab Group Members

Graduate Students

Ellie Bretscher
Ellie also joined the lab in Fall 2026. She holds a BS degree in Environmental Studies from University of Alaksa Southeast. Ellie has interested in spatial analysis and seabird science. She has been working for the past two summer seasons with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge on the Pribilof Islands. Ellie will be working on a habitat selection analysis using GLS data from black-legged kittiwakes and thick-billed murres nesting on St. Paul Island. This project is in close collaboration with the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government, and was made possible through a funding award by US Fish and Wildlife Service, Tribal Wildlife Grant.

Ali McCarron
Ali joined the lab in Fall 2026. She holds a BS degree in Fish and Wildlife Ecology and Managament from Montana State University. Ali grew up in Alaska and has spent the last several years working with Alaska Department of Fish and Game out of Homer on their pink and chum stream escapemement surveys. She also assisted US Fish and Wildlife Service out of the Fairbanks office on their eider survival studies in western Alaska. Ali will be working on our EVOS Salmon-Herring Interactions project focusing on comparative diet studies to evaluate dietary niche partitioning and overlap between species, as well as prey selectivity with comparing diet composition with oceanographic sampling of zooplankton.

Rebecca Lavier
Rebecca joined the lab in Spring 2025 as a MMS student and has now transferred to the PhD program in Marine Biology. Rebecca holds a BS degree in Natural Resources Ecology and Conservation from the University of Idaho, and a MS degree in Wildlife Ecology from Colorado State University. Rebecca has interests in seabird ecology and conservation, she is currently developing the full scope of the PhD dissertation research but her first chapter is examining dietary and migratory carry-over effects in tufted puffins of the Gulf of Alaska.

Alex Borsky
Alex joined the lab in Spring 2024 as a MS student in the Marine Biology program. Alex earned a BS degree in Marine Science with a concentration in Marine Biology and a minor in Fisheries from University of Maine in 2013. Alex is an avid hiker having completed all three of North America’s famous through hikes - the Applachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail. Alex is working on a retrospective spatial and temporal analysis of salmon and herring populations in Prince William Sound, Alaska aiming to quantify where and when in the life history (juvenile or adults phases) predatory or competitive interactions are taking place bewteen pink salmon and herring in PWS. Alex’s graduate commmittee includes Kristen Gorman and project collaborators Dr. Pete Rand (Prince William Sound Science Center), and Dr. Ron Heintz (Sitka Sound Science Center), and UAF CFOS faculty Dr. Katrin Iken. Alex’s thesis project is funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, Ecological interactions between Pacific herring and Pacific salmon in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Undergraduate Students

Trish Pence
Trish is working on a second undergradute degree at UAF/CFOS. She was instrumental to our seabird tracking studies on St. Paul Island in 2024 and 2025. Trish was employed by our partner, Aleut Community of St Paul Island Tribal Government as a seasonal biologist, which fulfilled an internship requirement for her BS degree at UAF. Trish has also helped in the lab at UAF with our stable isotope analysis of fish samples collected as part of the EVOS S-HIP project. Trish also assisted an EVOS field cruise in May 2026 and has been polishing chum salmon otoliths for Sr isotope analysis this fall. Big thanks to Trish for all her help in the field and lab! She is also an avid photographer and take amazing images of wild places and animals.

Past Lab Group Members

Abby Host
Abby joined the lab in Fall 2023 as a MS student in the Marine Biology program and defended in Spring 2026. Abby earned a BS degree in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies from Boston College in 2021. She is an avid outdoors woman and athlete with interests in high latitude fisheries ecology. Abby’s thesis work is focused on understanding relationships between pathogen diversity and loads and body condition of returning Sockeye Salmon to the Copper River, Alaska. Abby’s research is supported by a Teaching Assistantship during AY23-24, and a grant from the National Park Service, Examine health metrics of Copper River sockeye stocks to inform management decision making. Abby’s graduate committee includes Kristen Gorman, project collaborator Dr. Pete Rand (Prince William Sound Science Center), and Dr. Lara Horstmann (UAF Marine Biology).

Maya Russin
Maya is worked on an internship with the lab during Fall 2024 and is now a graduate student in the Fisheries Department here at UAF. Specifically, Maya’s interests are in fisheries, especially Yukon River salmon. Maya assisted with an EVOS funded research cruise in September 2024, and a variety of lab tasks related to stable isotope preparation of fish muscle and otolith samples.

Kristen B. Gorman, PhD

Assistant Professor of Marine Biology