Eve Pugsley

Bio

Eve recently joined CBR in 2025 after completing her PhD and MS in Ocean Sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz. Before that, she received a BS in Environmental Geology at College of William and Mary. With a background in isotope ecology, paleoceanography and regional ocean modeling, her research aims to advance understanding of marine ecosystem interactions by integrating observational, statistical and mechanistic modeling approaches in new ways. Her work in graduate school focused on the response of lower trophic levels to environmental change in the highly productive California Current Ecosystem. She is delighted to continue working on NE Pacific Ocean ecosystems at CBR, focusing on the response of endangered salmonid populations to marine environmental and food web changes.

Research Interests

In her role at CBR, Eve works with collaborators at NOAA, contributing to life cycle modeling efforts. Her current project focuses on characterizing important drivers and projecting future changes in the marine life stage of Columbia River Basin Chinook Salmon populations, with the goal of generating useful insights to support management and species recovery efforts. Specifically, she is developing structural equation models that incorporate bottom-up and top-down pressures salmon face in the marine environment, as well as “carryover effects” from the freshwater rearing environment that impact maturation age and marine survival.