Kaitlin Macdonald

Bio

Kaitlin joined CBR in 2026. She holds a MS in Fish and Wildlife Management and a PhD in Fish and Wildlife Biology from Montana State University. As a population ecologist she is broadly interested in how populations vary across temporal and spatial scales and the drivers of this variation. Over the past decade, her research has focused on multiple species, including Weddell seals in Antarctica as well as elk and mountain goats in Montana.

Research Interests

Her research experience includes statistical modeling within both the frequentist and Bayesian frameworks to answer questions addressing life-history evolution, population dynamics, and habitat selection. Kaitlin’s current projects at CBR focus on estimating juvenile production for Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon and identifying environmental variables that predict smolt-to-adult return rates of Snake River Chinook salmon.