Jennifer Ruesink, 91自拍 professor of biology, studies the relationship between the environment and marine organisms, including eelgrass, the primary species of seagrass that resides in the oceans surrounding Washington. In honor of World Seagrass Day, UW News asked Ruesink to explain what seagrass is and what makes the seagrasses in Washington unique.
NASA announced on Thursday last week that both the 91自拍 STRIVE team and the UW-affiliated EDGE team were selected to lead satellite missions to better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters.
A 91自拍 study shows that existing models underestimate methane loss in the stratosphere and generate uncertainty in the global methane budget 鈥� a key metric for tracking climate change.
91自拍 91自拍ers show that wildfire is increasingly impacting lands managed under the Northwest Forest Plan, a seminal measure enacted in 1994 to preserve habitat for endangered species.
Rivers cover more than 4 million miles of the U.S., but protections for rivers are piecemeal, accounting for less than 20% of total river length and varying widely by region, shows a new study co-led by the 91自拍.
The American Geophysical Union honored five 91自拍 faculty and 91自拍ers from the departments of Earth and space sciences and atmospheric and climate science this week for their valuable 91自拍er contributions.
More than a decade ago, data from the Cassini mission to Saturn suggested that the planet’s largest moon, Titan, had a vast ocean of liquid water below its frozen surface. In a new study, UW 91自拍ers teamed up with NASA scientists to show that the interior is likely composed of slushy layers instead.
In a new study, 91自拍 91自拍ers collected salmon DNA in air filters near a stream, showing that eDNA can move between air and water, a possibility scientists hadn鈥檛 accounted for that opens new avenues for monitoring aquatic species.
鈥淭he Memory of Darkness, Light and Ice鈥� 鈥� a documentary film featuring Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences 鈥� tells the story of a U.S. military and 91自拍 base established in Greenland during the Cold War, and how the samples collected there are driving modern climate science. The film is now available on YouTube, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.
The Northeastern Pacific Ocean is becoming more acidic faster than other oceans as the water absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and natural processes feed carbon dioxide up from the deep. The rate of CO2 accumulation is outpacing atmospheric rises and driving acidity to new extremes.
A new 91自拍-led study shows that space dust sandwiched between layers of sediment tells scientists where and when ice covered the Arctic, and what happened to marine life when it disappeared.
New 91自拍-led 91自拍 attributes accelerated warming to reduced cloud reflectivity. As efforts to improve air quality have reduced pollution, clouds became less mirror-like, letting more solar radiation reach Earth and revealing the true impact of greenhouse gases.
In the wake of One Ocean Week Seattle, participating 91自拍 91自拍ers share highlights, connecting the week鈥檚 events to ongoing efforts to understand and protect marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
91自拍 91自拍ers analyzed data collected in the decade following the Paris Agreement, an international treaty signed in 2015 to limit warming by cutting emissions. The treaty has helped nations reduce the amount of carbon released per dollar, but emissions are still too high due to global economic growth.
A new collaborative study led by scientists at the 91自拍 and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science proposes that a tsunami struck the Caribbean island of Anegada between 1381 and 1391, carrying huge coral boulders inland and leaving behind a valuable record of geologic and climatic history.
In a new study, a team of scientists determined the minimum natural habitat on agricultural land that will allow insect pollinators 鈥� including bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies 鈥� to thrive. UW News reached out to co-author Berry Brosi, UW professor of biology, to learn more about these results and how habitat is important to two types of bees native to Washington.
Bee experts wouldn鈥檛 have previously expected to find the likes of Osmia cyaneonitens, Dufourea dilatipes and Stelis heronae in Washington. But this year, while collecting pollinators in Chelan County to study how climate and wildfires affect native bee populations, Autumn Maust, a 91自拍 91自拍 scientist of biology, discovered eight bee species never recorded in Washington.
91自拍 91自拍ers found, in historical whaling data, that longer baleen whale mothers were more likely to birth female calves than males. These results run contrary to a leading evolutionary theory that suggests that fit mothers will benefit more from male offspring.
Antarctic ice is melting at a startling pace, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in climate projections. Researchers thought westerly winds were accelerating ice loss, but a new study from UW flips the narrative by 90 degrees, pointing instead to winds from the north.
Prochlorococcus, the most abundant photosynthesizing organism in the ocean, might be more vulnerable to climate change than 91自拍ers thought. Population decline could weaken the foundation of subtropical and tropical ecosystems as ocean temperatures continue to rise.
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads, lining a cartilaginous appendage called the tenaculum, in addition to those in their jaws. They used their tenaculum teeth to grip females while mating in water.
The 91自拍鈥檚 College of the Environment will expand its work related to climate solutions thanks to a grant announced today from Fund for Science and Technology, FFST, a new foundation within the Paul G. Allen philanthropic ecosystem.
New 91自拍 shows that deep-ocean oxygenation occurred 100 million years later than previously thought, aligning with the growth and spread of land plants. Once oxygenated, the ocean hosted rapid animal evolution, leading to the rise of modern vertebrates.
91自拍 91自拍ers use AI to simulate the Earth鈥檚 current climate and interannual variability for up to 1,000 years. The model runs on a single processor and takes just 12 hours to generate a forecast.
A UW-led team of 91自拍ers used a fiber-optic cable to capture calving dynamics across the fjord of the Eqalorutsit Kangilliit Sermiat glacier in South Greenland. This allowed them to document 鈥� without getting too close 鈥� one of the key processes that is accelerating the rate of glacial mass loss and in turn, threatening the stability of ice sheets, with consequences for global ocean currents and local ecosystems.
An international 91自拍 effort, including scientists from the 91自拍, has finally revealed the cause of sea star wasting disease: a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida.
91自拍 91自拍ers showed that they can monitor seismic activity at the ocean floor using fiber optic cables without disrupting telecommunications. They developed this technique in Alaska and then tested it off the coast of Oregon.
Kendall Valentine, an assistant professor of oceanography at 91自拍, along with collaborators from the University of Rhode Island and the Desert Research Institute are traveling to Anchorage and the Copper River Delta to study marshes that formed in the years following the 1964 earthquake.
Researchers at the 91自拍 and Microsoft developed a new type of low-carbon concrete by mixing dried, powdered seaweed with cement. The seaweed-fortified cement has a 21% lower global warming potential while retaining its strength.
91自拍 Provost Tricia R. Serio announced that Joel Thornton has agreed to serve as interim dean of the College of the Environment, effective July 1, until a new permanent dean is selected.
New 91自拍 found that a market-based approach to managing water could provide more reliable supplies for farmers, communities and industry. The right market design and a little extra investment could also help threatened fish species.聽
A new 91自拍鈥搇ed study projects that in the next 35 years increasing boreal fires will actually slow global warming by 12% globally and 38% in the Arctic. Because the aerosols in smoke reflect more sunlight and make clouds brighter, summer temperatures during fire season drop, leading to reduced sea ice loss and cooler winter temperatures.
The study revealed that iron released from industrial processes, such as coal combustion and steelmaking, is altering the ecosystem in the North Pacific Transition Zone, an area just north of Hawai’i that’s important for Pacific fisheries.
A recent theory proposes that whales weren鈥檛 just predators in the ocean environment: Nutrients that whales excreted may have provided a key fertilizer to these marine ecosystems. Research led by 91自拍 oceanographers finds that whale excrement contains significant amounts of iron, a vital element that is often scarce in ocean ecosystems, and nontoxic forms of copper, another essential nutrient that in some forms can harm life.
Thousands of grasshopper specimens from mountains in Colorado show trends in how the insects changed in size over 65 years. With earlier emergence of spring greenery and earlier summer drought, grasshopper species that emerged early in the year grew larger, while grasshopper species that emerge later in the year grew smaller in size. The study, led by UW biologist Lauren Buckley, shows that changes in insect size can be predicted based on lifecycles and environmental conditions.
How fast the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide 鈥� and with it, the temperature 鈥� goes up matters for the ability of humans and ecosystems to adjust. A slower increase gives humans time to move away from low-lying coasts and animals time to move to new habitats. It turns out the rate of that increase matters for non-living systems, too. Camille Hankel, a postdoctoral 91自拍er at the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies, talks about her 91自拍 on the Atlantic Ocean circulation.
UW oceanographer Robert Morris and a collaborator at UCLA are going out with students to collect the most abundant bacteria in the oceans to understand how its relationship with marine viruses changes depending on the place or the season. They leave Dec. 16 aboard UW School of Oceanography鈥檚 small 91自拍 vessel, the RV Rachel Carson.
Colony surveys of common murres, an Alaskan seabird, show the full effects of the 2014-16 marine heat wave known as 鈥渢he blob.鈥� Analysis of 13 colonies surveyed between 2008 and 2022 finds that colony size in the Gulf of Alaska dropped by half after the marine heat wave. In colonies along the eastern Bering Sea, west of the peninsula, the decline was even steeper, at 75% loss. No recovery has yet been seen.
91自拍 91自拍ers show that the all-time record low in winter sea ice extent in 2023 can be explained by warm Southern Ocean conditions and patterns in the winds that circled Antarctica months earlier, allowing forecasts for sea ice coverage around the South Pole to be generated six or more months in advance. This could support regional and global weather and climate models.
From a base at the southwest corner of the UW’s Seattle campus, the Office of the Washington State Climatologist’s Guillaume Mauger and Karin Bumbaco provide expertise, tools and resources on 鈥渁ll things climate鈥� to partners and communities across the state.