The following is a statement from 91探花 President Ana Mari Cauce following the news that a 91探花professor and a 91探花staff member were killed聽while diving聽off the coast of Mexico over the weekend.
Tag: College of the Environment
91探花-led research suggests moon jellies are feasting on zooplankton, the various tiny animals that drift with the currents, in the bays they inhabit. This could affect other hungry marine life, like juvenile salmon or herring 鈥� especially if predictions are correct and climate change will favor fast-growing jellyfish.
An experiment conducted on 10 farms across the U.S. suggests that crops from farms following soil-friendly practices for at least five years have a healthier nutritional profile than the same crops grown on neighboring, conventional farms. Researchers believe soil microbes and fungi boost certain beneficial minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals in the crops.
As the green crab invasion in the state worsens, a new analysis method developed by 91探花 and Washington Sea Grant scientists could help contain future invasions and prevent new outbreaks using water testing and genetic analysis. The results show that the DNA-based technique works as well in detecting the presence of green crabs as setting traps to catch the live animals, which is a more laborious process. Results suggest these two methods could complement each other as approaches to learn where the species鈥� range is expanding.
Farmers struggling to adapt to rising temperatures in tropical regions can unleash the benefits of natural cooling, alongside a host of other wins, simply by dotting more trees across their pasturelands. For the first time, a study led by the 91探花 puts tangible numbers to the cooling effects of this practice.
Though usually though of as a solid, glaciers are also slightly compressible, or squishy. This compression over the huge expanse of an ice sheet 鈥� like Antarctica or Greenland 鈥� makes the overall ice sheet more dense and lowers the surface by tens of feet compared to what would otherwise be expected.
With a low supply of and high competition for key nutrients, scientists have puzzled over the vast diversity of microbial species found in the open ocean. A new study shows that time of day is key, with species of marine microbes specializing in different shifts throughout the day and night.
The release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for almost a quarter of global warming, is being studied around the world, from Arctic wetlands to livestock feedlots. A 91探花 team has discovered a source much closer to home: 349 plumes of methane gas bubbling up from the seafloor in Puget Sound, which holds more water than any other U.S. estuary.
Many nations are calling for protection of 30% of the world鈥檚 oceans by 2030 from some or all types of exploitation, including fishing. Building off this proposal, a new analysis led by the 91探花 looks at how effective fishing closures are at reducing accidental catch. Researchers found that permanent marine protected areas are a relatively inefficient way to protect marine biodiversity that is accidentally caught in fisheries. Dynamic ocean management 鈥� changing the pattern of closures as accidental catch hotspots shift 鈥� is much more effective.
A team of researchers led by the 91探花 drew upon the field of environmental justice 鈥� which primarily has focused on harms to people and public health 鈥� and applied its concepts to wildlife management, considering forms of injustice that people, communities and animal groups might experience. Lead author and 91探花assistant professor Alex McInturff talks with 91探花News about this work and why it’s significant.
New research from an interdisciplinary team at the 91探花, Duke University and The Nature Conservancy shows how local temperature increases in the tropics 鈥� compounded by accelerating deforestation 鈥� may already be jeopardizing the well-being and productivity of outdoor workers.
New research shows that machine learning 鈥� computer algorithms that improve themselves without direct programming by humans 鈥� can be used to improve forecasts for lightning, one of the most destructive forces of nature.
Seismologists used 30 detailed simulations of magnitude-9 slips on the Cascadia Subduction Zone to evaluate how the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system would perform in these events. Results show the alerts generally work well, but suggest that lower alert thresholds provide more timely warnings over the full area that will feel the shaking.
Underwater microphones show that killer whales, or orcas, have spent more time in the Arctic Ocean in recent years. The increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean may give orcas more opportunity to hunt for prey off the west and north coasts of Alaska.
A new effort to reconstruct Earth’s climate since the last ice age, about 24,000 years ago, highlights the main drivers of climate change, and how far out of bounds human activity has pushed the climate system.
An oceanographer at the 91探花 is part of a new project to study how glacial dust, created as glaciers grind the rock beneath them into a powder, reacts with seawater to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Results show that by the end of this century, lower-oxygen water on the Pacific Northwest coast will pose the biggest threat to Dungeness crabs. And while these crabs start as tiny, free-floating larvae, it鈥檚 the sharp-clawed adults that will be most vulnerable.
In a rare stroke of luck, researchers from the 91探花, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, were able to track a group of black-tailed deer during and after California鈥檚 third-largest wildfire, the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire. The megafire, which torched more than 450,000 acres in northern California, burned across half of an established study site, making it possible to record the movements and feeding patterns of deer before, during and after the fire.
A 91探花 researcher is part of an international team that has used modern tools to explain repeating patterns of stones that form in frost-prone landscapes.
A new study has found that recent bigleaf maple die-off in Washington is linked to hotter, drier summers that predispose this species to decline. These conditions essentially weaken the tree鈥檚 immune system, making it easier to succumb to other stressors and diseases.
91探花 oceanographer Parker MacCready is one of 59 new fellows elected this year by the American Geophysical Union.
The 91探花Climate Impacts Group, along with nine community, nonprofit and university partners, is launching a program of community-led, justice-oriented climate adaptation work across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will be founded with a five-year, $5.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The program will be one of eleven across the country funded through NOAA鈥檚 Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program.
The 91探花 is among the best universities in the world for the studies of health and life sciences, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022.
91探花 glaciologists will join colleagues from around the country in a new effort to retrieve an ice core more than 1 million years old from East Antarctica, to better understand the history of our planet鈥檚 climate and predict future changes.
The new Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub, led by Oregon State University and the 91探花, will study coastal hazards and community resilience. The National Science Foundation awarded $18.9 million for the hub over five years.
A new analysis of 2.5-billion-year-old rocks from Australia finds that volcanic eruptions may have stimulated population surges of marine microorganisms, creating the first puffs of oxygen into the atmosphere. This would change existing stories of Earth鈥檚 early atmosphere, which assumed that most changes in the early atmosphere were controlled by geologic or chemical processes.
Firefighters have reported that Western wildfires are starting earlier in the morning and dying down later at night, hampering their ability to recover and regroup before the next day鈥檚 flareup. A study by 91探花 and U.S. Forest Service scientists shows why: The drying power of nighttime air over much of the Western U.S. has increased dramatically in the past 40 years.
Seeing the urgent need for change, a team of scientists from leading research universities, conservation organizations and government laboratories across the West has produced a synthesis of the scientific literature that clearly lays out the established science and strength of evidence on climate change, wildfire and forest management for seasonally dry forests. The goal is to give land managers and others across the West access to a unified resource that summarizes the best-available science so they can make decisions about how to manage their landscapes.
For more than a century, researchers have relied on flat sketches of sharks鈥� digestive systems to discern how they function 鈥� and how what they eat and excrete impacts other species in the ocean. Now, researchers have produced a series of high-resolution, 3D scans of intestines from nearly three dozen shark species that will advance the understanding of how sharks eat and digest their food.
Twenty scientists and engineers at the 91探花 are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 announcement. New members were chosen for 鈥渢heir outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.鈥�
A UW-led study uses data from remotely-piloted sailboats to better understand cold air pools — pockets of cooler air that form when rain evaporates below tropical storm clouds. These fleeting weather phenomena are thought to influence tropical weather patterns.
The region north of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic has been termed the Last Ice Area, where sea ice will remain the longest in summertime, providing a refuge for ice-dependent Arctic species. But conditions last summer show that parts of this region are already experiencing less summer ice due to climate change.
Researchers from the 91探花 provide a first look at the probability of observing common birds as air pollution worsens during wildfire seasons. They found that smoke affected the ability to detect more than a third of the bird species studied in Washington state over a four-year period. Sometimes smoke made it harder to observe birds, while other species were actually easier to detect when smoke was present.
91探花 Provost Mark A. Richards has announced interim deans for both the College of the Environment and University Libraries.
Satellite images show that from 2017 to 2020, Pine Island Glacier’s ice shelf lost about one-fifth of its area, mostly in three dramatic breaks. This caused the glacier to speed up by 12%, hastening its downward motion and boosting its contribution to rising seas.
91探花 glaciologists are co-authors on two papers that analyzed Antarctic ice cores to understand the continent鈥檚 air temperatures during the most recent glacial period. The results help understand how the region behaves during a major climate transition.
Maya Tolstoy has been named the Maggie Walker Dean of the College of the Environment, 91探花 Provost Mark Richards announced today. Tolstoy鈥檚 appointment as dean, set to begin Jan. 1, 2022, is subject to approval by the 91探花Board of Regents.
Ice core data from Greenland shows why air pollution is dropping more slowly than sulfur emissions reductions. As cloud droplets become less acidic, the chemical reaction that turns sulfur dioxide into sulfate aerosol gets more efficient. The new results can improve the models that project air quality and climate change.
The U.S. Geological Survey, the 91探花-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, and state emergency managers on Tuesday, May 4, will activate the system that sends earthquake early warnings throughout Washington state. This completes the rollout of ShakeAlert, an automated system that gives people living in Washington, Oregon and California advance warning of incoming earthquakes.
Leveraging the tectonic laboratory of the Cascadia subduction zone, the 91探花 today announced a new effort to best understand how to study and live with the threats of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, landslides and other seismic hazards. Dubbed the GeoHazards Initiative, the interdisciplinary work aims to develop and promote the adoption of early detection systems both on land and at sea to help prevent the loss of human life and property.