91探花atmospheric sciences faculty and graduate students are in Tasmania studying how clouds form over Antarctica’s Southern Ocean.
Environment
After an “extreme makeover” that went from stem to stern on five decks of the ship, the R/V Thomas G. Thompson is ready to get back to work exploring the world’s oceans. The 91探花’s School of Oceanography, part of the College of the Environment, operates the 274-foot ship, which arrived on campus in 1991. In summer 2016, with funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the UW, the vessel headed to a…
A 91探花 study has found a simple approach to look for life that might be more promising than just looking for oxygen.
91探花 researchers have published the first major assessment of small hydropower dams around the world 鈥� including their potential for growth 鈥� and highlight the incredibly variability in how dams of varying sizes are categorized, regulated and studied.
An experiment using hundreds of plastic drifters in the Gulf of Mexico shows that rather than simply spread out, as current calculations would predict, many of them clumped together in a tight cluster.
More than three centuries ago, a French monk made thousands of drawings of plants and animals, traveling under the authority of King Louis XIV to the French Antilles to collect and document the natural history of the islands. These drawings were often the first ever recorded for each species and were completed in remarkable detail. The illustrations were nearly lost forever during the tumultuous French Revolution, and the volumes compiled by Father Charles Plumier were discovered by chance, found serving…
A new study in the Journal PLOS ONE details what removing the two dams on the Elwha River meant for the nearshore marine ecosystem.
A new grant will let a 91探花-based project add a new fleet to its quest to learn more about past climate from the records of long-gone mariners. The 91探花is among the winners of the 2017 鈥淒igitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives鈥� awards, announced Jan. 4 by the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Library and Information Resources. The new $482,018 grant to the UW, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and the National Archives Foundation will support 鈥淪eas…
A small group of fishes 鈥� possibly the world’s cleverest carnivorous grazers 鈥� feeds on the scales of other fish in the tropics. A team led by biologists at the 91探花’s Friday Harbor Laboratories is trying to understand these scale-feeding fish and how this odd diet influences their body evolution and behavior.
Jeff Hou, 91探花professor of landscape architecture, discusses the new book he co-edited with Sabine Knierbein, “City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy.”
A new partnership between the 91探花and Paul G. Allen Philanthropies will use a network of robots to observe conditions beneath a floating Antarctic ice shelf.
Recognizing that many large dams are here to stay, a 91探花 team is investigating an emerging solution to help achieve freshwater conservation goals by re-envisioning the ways in which water is released by dams.
Researchers from the 91探花, Chapman University and University of Guelph have published new research showing how hagfishes survive an initial attack from predators before they release large volumes of slime to defend themselves.
A new NSF-funded project will use findings in the Mekong River basin as an example of how three critical issues 鈥� feeding people, generating energy and maintaining functioning ecosystems 鈥� can be addressed thoughtfully and progressively in the developing world.
New faculty member Shuyi Chen answers some questions about hurricane science, hurricane forecasting and the 2017 storm season.
The 91探花, Arizona State University and other collaborators have proposed a method in the Dec. 8 issue of Science that allows hydroelectric dam operators to generate power in ways that protect 鈥� and possibly improve 鈥� food supplies and businesses throughout the Mekong river basin in Southeast Asia.
The ocean’s deepest fish doesn’t look like it could survive in harsh conditions thousands of feet below the surface. Instead of giant teeth and a menacing frame, the fishes that roam in the deepest parts of the ocean are small, translucent, bereft of scales 鈥� and highly adept at living where few other organisms can. Meet the deepest fish in the ocean, a new species named the Mariana snailfish by an international team of researchers that discovered it. The Mariana…
Eight 91探花 researchers are among the 396 new fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, announced this week.
A new 91探花 study points to yet another human factor that is hampering the ability of fish to reproduce: the timing of our fishing seasons. The study considers how the timing of fishing efforts might disproportionately target certain fish and change the life history patterns of entire populations.
One of the saltiest bodies on Earth, an analog to how water might exist on Mars, shows signs of being one piece of a larger aquifer.
A 91探花 team is trying to make poplar a viable competitor in the biofuels market by testing the production of younger poplar trees that could be harvested more frequently 鈥� after only two or three years 鈥� instead of the usual 10- to 20-year cycle.
Think, for a moment, about the last time you were out in nature. Were you in a city park? At a campground? On the beach? In the mountains? Now consider: What was this place like in your parents鈥� time? Your grandparents鈥�? In many cases, the parks, beaches and campgrounds of today are surrounded by more development, or are themselves more developed, than they were decades ago. But to you, they still feel like nature. If we just try…
A 91探花 team wants to simplify the process for discovering detrimental water leaks by developing “smart” paper that can sense the presence of water.
Three federal grants announced this week will provide total funding of $1.1 million to Washington Sea Grant, based at the 91探花鈥檚 College of the Environment, for research that will sustainably further shellfish and finfish aquaculture in the state
The largest number yet of detailed simulations for how a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake might play out provides a clearer picture of what the region can expect when the fault unleashes a 9.0 earthquake.
A satellite technique provides a new way to monitor the status of more than 1,200 mountain glaciers in the lower 48 states.
Paul Bodin, a 91探花seismologist and manager of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, has been named interim director of the network that monitors earthquakes and volcanoes in Washington and Oregon.
The eighth annual Northwest Climate Conference will take place in Tacoma, and begins with a free public discussion featuring 91探花experts on Monday evening.
A new study has found that cover in tall trees is the key habitat requirement for the spotted owl, not total canopy cover. It indicated that spotted owls largely avoid cover created by stands of shorter trees.
Scott L. Montgomery of the 91探花Jackson School of International Studies discusses his new book, “Seeing the Light: The Case for Nuclear power in the 21st Century.”
91探花 oceanographers are working with a local company to develop a simple new technique that could track seafloor movement in earthquake-prone coastal areas.
A hardy ocean drone made a first-ever attempt to surf across Antarctica’s stormy Drake Passage gathering data about ocean mixing.
Researchers analyzed nearly 30 years of revenue and permitting records for individuals fishing in Alaskan waters and tracked how their fishing choices, in terms of permits purchased and species caught, influenced their year-to-year income volatility.
A new study by 91探花 scientists has found that, for dozens of fish populations around the globe, old fish are greatly depleted 鈥� mainly because of fishing pressure. The paper, published online Sept. 14 in Current Biology, is the first to report that old fish are missing in many populations around the world.
Climate change will force many amphibians, mammals and birds to move to cooler areas outside their normal ranges, provided they can find space and a clear trajectory among our urban developments and growing cities. But what are the chances for fish to survive as climate change continues to warm waters around the world? 91探花 researchers are tackling this question in the first analysis of how vulnerable the world’s freshwater and marine fishes are to climate change. Their…
More than a decade of lightning strikes over the Indian Ocean shows for the first time that ship exhaust along major shipping routes alters thunderstorm intensity.
The National Science Foundation is funding the largest marine seismic-monitoring effort yet along the Alaska Peninsula, a region with frequent and diverse earthquake and volcanic activity. Involving aircraft and ships, the new Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment will be led by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with partners at the 91探花 and seven other research institutions. “This effort will really change the information we have at our disposal for understanding the seismic properties of subduction zones,” said…
Sanne Knudsen was an undergraduate in Chicago when she got her first close-up look at environmental justice. As an environmental engineering student at Northwestern University, Knudsen answered an attorney’s call for volunteers to study several neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side, communities that had endured more than their share of pollution and exposure to chemicals. Through that work, Knudsen found a future calling. “That piqued my interest in environmental law and the impact law can have,” said Knudsen, who now…
A new book focuses on climate change risks in the Northern Rocky Mountains, and how managers of public lands can prepare.
This exceptional, sudden nosedive in Antarctic sea ice last year was due to a unique one-two punch from atmospheric conditions both in the tropical Pacific Ocean and around the South Pole.