Environment
July 15, 2014
Sustainable, sharing communities explored in Karen Litfin’s book ‘Ecovillages’
UW political scientist Karen Litfin spent a year traveling to 14 ecovillages worldwide in researching her book “Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community.”
July 10, 2014
Students calculate future sea-level rise in Olympia
Students in a UW statistics course did a case study on sea-level rise in Olympia. All are co-authors on a new paper that looks at the uncertainties around estimates of rising seas.
June 26, 2014
Foul fumes derail dinner for hungry moths
New research on how pollinators find flowers when background odors are strong shows that both natural plant odors and human sources of pollution can conceal the scent of sought-after flowers.
June 25, 2014
Shellfish center – named after UW’s Ken Chew – to tackle shellfish declines
Washington state’s newest shellfish hatchery has been named after longtime faculty member Ken Chew.
June 16, 2014
Ferries for science: Instrument will monitor flow in Puget Sound
The UW, the state Department of Ecology and Washington State Ferries are working together to get a better understanding of water circulation in Puget Sound.
June 6, 2014
Ocean technology course ends spring quarter with a splash
A University of Washington undergraduate class has students design, build and test their own Internet-connected oceanographic sensors. The students are getting their feet wet, literally, in a new type of oceanography.
International award cites UW for leadership in sustainability
The University of Washington is the only U.S. university named as a 2014 Sustainable Campus Excellence Award winner.
May 27, 2014
UW students, neighbors join forces down on the Union Bay ‘bayou’
Swamp once site of historic Yesler sawmill being restored with UW student and neighborhood help.
May 20, 2014
Shrub growth decreases as winter temps warm up
Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.
May 13, 2014
Health Digest: Cutbacks jeopardize newborns, safe water, MERS facts
The costly effects of cutbacks on maternal/child services, assuring a pure water supply, and what you need to know about Middle East respiratory syndrome.
May 12, 2014
West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse is under way
The collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun, according to computer models using detailed topographic maps. The fast-moving Thwaites Glacier will likely disappear in a matter of centuries, researchers say, raising sea level by nearly 2 feet.
May 7, 2014
Greenland melting due equally to global warming, natural variations
Up to half of the recent warming in Greenland and surrounding areas may be due to climate variations that originate in the tropical Pacific and are not connected with the overall warming of the planet. Still, at least half the warming remains attributable to global warming caused by rising carbon dioxide emissions.
May 6, 2014
UW scientist a lead author on third National Climate Assessment
University of Washington climate scientist Amy Snover is one of two lead authors for the Northwest chapter of the newly published National Climate Assessment.
May 1, 2014
Amphibians in a vise: Climate change robs frogs, salamanders of refuge
Amphibians in the West’s high-mountain areas find themselves caught between climate-induced habitat loss and predation from introduced fish. A novel combination of tools could help weigh where amphibians are in the most need of help.
April 30, 2014
See National Ocean Sciences Bowl put the M (for “marine”) in STEMM
The Super Bowl of high school marine studies, the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, takes place this weekend on the UW campus. The theme of this year’s event is ocean acidification.
April 23, 2014
Fisheries act, up for reauthorization, subject of UW symposium
The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the subject of this year’s Bevan Series on Sustainable Fisheries.
April 22, 2014
News digest: Burke-Gilman detours, Honor: McCarthy, provost town hall, Honors: Sutton and Loveland, Green UW
Compiled by the Office of News and Information.
April 21, 2014
Campus events Earth Day, April 22
Network with representatives of environmentally minded campus units and learn who won this year’s Husky Green Awards during Earth Day activities Tuesday on the HUB lawn.
April 18, 2014
UW moving to online course evaluations to save paper, money
The University of Washington is expanding online course evaluations to reduce its use of paper. The online evaluations are expected to save the university tens of thousands of dollars every year in paper costs while giving faculty and administrators more direct access to evaluation results.
April 14, 2014
Puget Sound’s rich waters supplied by deep, turbulent canyon
UW oceanographers found fast-flowing water and intense mixing in a submarine canyon just off the Washington coast.
April 11, 2014
Greenland ice cores show industrial record of acid rain, success of U.S. Clean Air Act
Detailed ice core measurements show smog-related ratios leveling off in 1970, and suggests these deposits are sensitive to the same chemicals that cause acid rain.
April 4, 2014
UW researchers, radar company conduct aerial surveys of Oso site
UW researchers made some of the first aerial surveys over the Oso mudslide, using radar technology to map the condition immediately after the slide.
March 27, 2014
Citizen scientists: UW students help state legislator with climate policy
Four graduate students were part of a year-long legislative process in Olympia working to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in Washington state.
March 26, 2014
Decline of natural history troubling for science, society
Seventeen North American scientists outline the importance of natural science and call for a revitalization of the practice.
March 13, 2014
Tethered robots tested for Internet-connected ocean observatory
The UW this fall will complete installation of a huge high-tech ocean observatory. Dozens of instruments will connect to power and Internet cables on the seafloor, but the observatory also includes a new generation of ocean explorers: robots that will zoom up and down through almost two miles of ocean to monitor the water conditions and marine life above.
March 4, 2014
Polar science this weekend at Pacific Science Center
The 9th annual Polar Science Weekend will bring polar research, art and an actual ice core to the Pacific Science Center.
February 26, 2014
Pine forest particles appear out of thin air, influence climate
German, Finnish and U.S. scientists have discovered how gas wafting from coniferous trees creates particles that can reflect sunlight or promote formation of clouds.
Whales, ships more common through Bering Strait
A three-year survey of whales in the Bering Strait reveals that many species of whales are using the narrow waterway, while shipping and commercial traffic also increase.
February 24, 2014
Vitamin water: Measuring essential nutrients in the ocean
Oceanographers have found that archaea, a type of marine microbe, can produce B-12 vitamins in the ocean.
February 18, 2014
Personal stories behind Exxon Valdez spill in book ‘Red light to Starboard’
Angela Day, UW doctoral student in political science, discusses her book, “Red Light to Starboard: Recalling the Exxon Valdez Disaster.”
Embarking on geoengineering, then stopping, would speed up global warming
Carrying out geoengineering for several decades and then stopping would cause warming at a rate more than double that expected due to global warming.
February 14, 2014
UW helps protect $30 million to $40 million in U.S. wood exports to Japan
A recently introduced homebuilding subsidy program in Japan put logs and lumber imported from the U.S. and other countries at a competitive disadvantage.
February 4, 2014
News Digest: Campuswide big-data event, Paws-on Science deadline, Green Seed Fund awards
UW president, provost headline campus-wide data science event Friday || Participant deadline Feb. 14 for Paws-on Science || Green Seed Fund awards $279,000 to initial slate of projects
Fruit flies – fermented-fruit connoisseurs – are relentless party crashers
That fruit fly appearing moments after you poured that first glass of cabernet, has just used a poppy-seed-sized brain to conduct a finely-choreographed search and arrive in time for happy hour.
February 3, 2014
Greenland’s fastest glacier sets new speed record
Observations of Jakobshavn Glacier from 2012 and 2013 show the fast-moving glacier has set new records for the speed of ice flowing toward the ocean.
January 29, 2014
Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguins
Climate change is killing penguin chicks from the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins, not just indirectly but directly because of drenching rainstorms and heat.
January 28, 2014
Environmental sciences lab ups bar for green labs at UW
A soils lab has achieved the highest score yet in the University of Washington’s 10-month-old Green Laboratory Certification Program.
January 16, 2014
Soil production breaks geologic speed record
Samples from steep mountaintops in New Zealand shows that rock can transform into soil more than twice as fast as previously believed possible.
January 15, 2014
DNA detectives able to ‘count’ thousands of fish using as little as a glass of water
A mere glass full of water from a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium tank is all scientists really needed to identify most of the 13,000 fish swimming there.
Glaciers, streamflow changes are focus of new Columbia River study
University of Washington environmental engineers are launching a new study to try to understand how climate change will affect streamflow patterns in the Columbia River Basin. The team will look at the impact of glaciers on the river system, the range of possible streamflow changes and how much water will flow in the river at hundreds of locations in future years.
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