Current Research Projects

Ontogeny of diving.
Heritability of migration.
Thermal drone photos.
Isoscape from whiskers.
Behavior during molt. 

Publications
PDFs available on Research Gate or Google Scholar

IN REVIEW/REVISION. 
  • KA Keen, RS Beltran, E Pirotta, DP Costa. Emerging themes in Population Consequences of Disturbance models. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
  • L DeKock, C Oosthuzien, RS Beltran, NP DeBruyn. Determinants of the moult phenology and duration of southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) at Marion Island. Scientific Reports.
  • A Race, RS Beltran, E Zavaleta. How an early, inclusive field course builds persistence in ecology and evolutionary biology. Integrative and Comparative Biology.
  • I Shukla, AM Kilpatrick, RS Beltran. Variation in resting strategies across trophic levels and habitats in mammals. Oikos.
  • MR Cronin (26 authors including RS Beltran). Implementing anti-racist pedagogy and practice in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology departments. Nature Ecology and Evolution.
  • MR Cronin, RS Beltran, E Zavaleta. Why field science needs harassment and assault prevention. Submitted to Nature Geoscience.
  • R Condit, RS Beltran, PW Robinson, DP Costa. Birth timing after the long feeding migration in elephant seals. PLOS ONE. 

2021
  • [2021] SA Wood, PW Robinson, DP Costa, RS Beltran. Accuracy and precision of citizen scientist animal counts from drone imagery. PLOS ONE. 
  • [2021] ​RS Beltran, JM Kendall-Bar, E Pirotta, T Adachi, Y Naito, A Takahashi, J Cremers, PW Robinson, DE Crocker, DP Costa. Lightscapes of fear: how mesopredators balance starvation and predation in the open ocean. Science Advances. 
  • [2021] RS Beltran, AM Kilpatrick, GA Breed, T Adachi, A Takahashi, Y Naito, PW Robinson, WO Smith Jr., AL Kirkham, JM Burns. Seasonal resource pulses and the foraging depth of a Southern Ocean top predator. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
  • [2021] AI Race, M De Jesus, RS Beltran, ES Zavaleta. A comparative study between outcomes of an in-person versus online introductory field course. Ecology and Evolution.

2020
  • [2020] ES Zavaleta, RS Beltran, AL Borker. How field courses propel inclusion and collective excellence. Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
  •  [2020] DC Alvarado, PW Robinson, NC Frasson, DP Costa, RS Beltran. Calibration of aerial photogrammetry to estimate elephant seal mass. Marine Mammal Science.
  •  [2020] RS Beltran, E Marnocha, A Race, D Croll, G Dayton, E Zavaleta. Field courses narrow demographic achievement gaps in ecology and evolutionary biology. Ecology and Evolution. 10(12).
2019
  • [2019] RS Beltran, AL Kirkham, GA Breed, JW Testa, JM Burns. Reproductive success influences moult phenology in Weddell seals. Scientific Reports. 9,5221.
  • [2019] G Frankfurter, RS Beltran, M Hoard, JM Burns. Rapid prototyping and 3D printing of Antarctic seal flipper tags. The Wildlife Society Bulletin. WSB964. 
2018
  • [2018] RS Beltran, JM Burns, GA Breed. Review: Convergence of biannual moulting strategies across birds and mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 20180318.​
  • [2018] Z Smeele, JM Burns, K Van Doorsaler, S Kraberger, RS Fontenele, K Waits, D Stainton, MR Shero, RS Beltran, AL Kirkham, G Frankfurter, R Berngartt, P Lefeurve, A Varsani. Diverse papillomaviruses identified in Weddell seals. General Virology.
  • [2018] RS Beltran, B Ruscher-Hill (undergrad), AL Kirkham, JM Burns. An evaluation of three-dimensional photogrammetric and morphometric techniques for estimating volume and mass in Weddell seals. PLOS ONE.
2017
  • [2017] E Fahsbender, JM Burns, S Kim, S Kraberger, G Frankfurter, A Eilers, MR Shero, RS Beltran, AL Kirkham, R McCorkell, R Berngartt, M Male, K Rosario, G Ballard, DG Ainley, M Breitbart, A Varsani. Diverse and highly recombinant alleloviruses associated with Weddell seals in Antarctica. Journal of Virus Evolution. 3,1-11.
  • [2017] RS Beltran, JW Testa, JM Burns. An agent-based model for predicting impacts of environmental change on a top marine predator, the Weddell seal. Ecological Modelling. 351,36-50.
2016
  • [2016] N Lubcker, R Condit, RS Beltran, PJN de Bruyn, MN Bester. Vibrissal growth parameters of southern elephant seals: obtaining fine-scale, time-based stable isotope data. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 559,243-255.
  • ​[2016] RS Beltran, SH Peterson, EA McHuron, C Reichmuth, LA Huckstadt, DP Costa. Pinnipeds are what they eat, plus what? Determination of trophic discrimination factors in six seal species. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. 30, 1115–1122.
2015
  • [2015] L Schwarz, S Villegas-Amtmann, RS Beltran, DP Costa, C Goetsch, LA Huckstadt, J Maresh, SH Peterson. Comparisons and uncertainty in fat and adipose tissue estimation techniques: The Northern Elephant Seal as a Case Study. PLOS ONE. 
  • [2015] RS Beltran, MS Connolly, SH Peterson, R Condit, C Reichmuth, DP Costa. Whisker growth dynamics: a validated approach for assigning timescales to stable isotope analyses. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 523, 233-241.
2014
  • [2014] M Connolly, RS Beltran and C Reichmuth. A calibration procedure for measuring pinniped vibrissae using photogrammetry. Aquatic Mammals. 40(2), 213-218.
  • ​[2014] RS Beltran, N Kreidler* (undergrad), D Van Vuren, S Morrison, E Zavaleta, K Newton, B Tershy D Croll. Passive recovery of vegetation from herbivore eradication on Santa Cruz Island, California. Restoration Ecology. 22(6), 790-797. Cover photo.