Professor Boersma's academic research is in the area of conservation biology and has focused on seabirds as indicators of environmental change.

She directs the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and is Co-Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature SSC Penguin Specialist Group. In her role as a scientific fellow for the Wildlife Conservation Society she leads the research on Magellanic Penguins at Punta Tombo, Argentina,. Since the project started in 1982, each year she and her team have followed the lives of individual Magellanic penguins in the South Atlantic, determining their reproductive success, foraging locations, population dynamics, and the effects of perturbations.and policy changes on their survival. A Marine Protected Area (MPA) based on her long-term satellite work at Punta Tombo, home to the largest Magellanic penguin colony in the world, is under consideration by the Chubut government.

The Galapagos penguin, the only penguin breeding on the equator, is the rarest species of penguin and its' breeding distribution is very restricted . In  2010 we built nesting sites that the penguin are using  to increase the population.  Galapagos penguins molt twice a year so the research examines penguin body condition to learn how climate variation impacts the timing and frequency of the molt  as well as the morphology of the penguins.