Environment
January 13, 2014
DeLap studies urban birds, sketches for book ‘Subirdia’ due out in 2014
Slideshow includes with images sketched by Jack DeLap, UW doctoral candidate in environmental and forestry sciences.
January 9, 2014
Big is not bad: Scientists call for preservation of large carnivores
Despite their scary reputation, carnivores deserve credit for all kinds of ecological services when they eat grazing animals that gobble down young trees and other vegetation that could be holding carbon and protecting streams.
January 6, 2014
‘Future of Ice’ initiative marks new era for UW polar research
The UW’s new “Future of Ice” initiative includes several new research hires, a new minor in Arctic studies and a free winter lecture series.
January 2, 2014
El Niño tied to melting of Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier
A new study in Science, co-authored by the British Antarctic Survey and UW authors, shows that melting of the floating Pine Island ice shelf is tied to global atmospheric patterns associated with El Niño.
December 17, 2013
Hack the planet? Geoengineering research, ethics, governance explored
A special interdisciplinary issue of the journal Climatic Change includes the most detailed description yet of the proposed Oxford Principles to govern geoengineering research, and surveys the technical hurdles, ethics and regulatory issues related to deliberately manipulating the planet’s climate.
December 12, 2013
New state-funded Clean Energy Institute will focus on solar, battery technologies
A new University of Washington institute to develop efficient, cost-effective solar power and better energy storage systems launched Dec. 12 with an event attended by UW President Michael K. Young, Gov. Jay Inslee and researchers, industry experts and policy leaders in renewable energy.
December 10, 2013
What climate change means for federally protected marine species
As the Endangered Species Act nears its 40th birthday at the end of December, conservation biologists are coming to terms with a danger not foreseen in the 1970s: global climate change.
November 21, 2013
Studies to probe confluence of human, animal and environmental health in Africa
Grand Challenges Exploration Grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will allow two UW-led teams to study the health determinants people share with other living creatures.
November 19, 2013
Paddlers spread pump-out ‘gospel’ to recreational boaters
Washington Sea Grant’s “Pumpout Paddlers” are readying their kayaks for winter paddling to deliver more adapters so boaters have a cleaner, easier way to pump their sewage-holding tanks.
November 18, 2013
Post-shutdown, UW Arctic research flights resume
UW researchers this month are on missions to fly above the Arctic Ocean to measure glacier melt, polar storms and Arctic sea ice.
November 13, 2013
Snow melts faster under trees than in open areas in mild climates
University of Washington researchers have found that tree cover actually causes snow to melt more quickly in warm, Mediterranean-type climates. Alternatively, open, clear gaps in the forests tend to keep snow on the ground longer into the spring and summer. Their findings were published this fall in Water Resources Research.
November 8, 2013
Forest fires and fireside chats: UW students learn about management challenges
An intensive two week field course helped 20 University of Washington students learn firsthand about the challenges of managing dry, fire-prone forests of the Pacific Northwest.
November 6, 2013
Floods didn’t provide nitrogen ‘fix’ for earliest crops in frigid north
Floods didn’t make floodplains fertile during the dawn of human agriculture in the Earth’s far north. Turns out early human inhabitants can mainly thank cyanobacteria. It raises the question of whether modern farmers might reduce fertilizer use by taking advantage of cyanobacteria that occur, not just in the floodplains studied, but in soils around the world.
November 4, 2013
More wildfires, earlier snowmelt, coastal threats top Northwest climate risks
A new comprehensive report co-authored by the UW’s Climate Impacts Group looks at what climate change will mean for Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
UW Bothell prof, students present crowd-funded study of coal train emissions
Atmospheric scientist Dan Jaffe tonight will present the first results of a crowd-funded study of train emissions, conducted with four undergraduates from the Seattle and Bothell campuses and funded by public donations.
October 29, 2013
Redwood trees reveal history of West Coast rain, fog, ocean conditions
Scientists found a way to use coastal redwood trees as a window into historic climate, using oxygen and carbon atoms in the wood to detect fog and rainfall in previous seasons.
October 20, 2013
Global ocean currents explain why Northern Hemisphere is the soggier one
A new study in Nature Geoscience explains a major feature of global precipitation, and shows how a current originating from the poles influences tropical rainfall in Africa and southern India.
October 17, 2013
Campus sustainability, climate change focus of Sustainability Summit Oct. 23
Learn how to be more involved with campus sustainability during UW Sustainability Summit activities Oct. 23.
October 8, 2013
UW, local company building innovative deep-sea manned submarine
The UW, Boeing and an Everett company are building a carbon-fiber submersible that will carry five passengers almost 2 miles deep.
September 30, 2013
UW researchers helped draft international assessment of climate change
UW faculty members were among international researchers who compiled the fifth climate-change assessment report. The UW will host a seminar Tuesday, Oct. 1 with some of the Seattle-area authors.
September 19, 2013
Mantas, devil rays butchered for apothecary trade now identifiable
Dried filters from the mouths of filter-feeding rays started appearing in apothecary shops in recent years, but there’s been no way to know which of these gentle-natured rays was being slaughtered. Now scientists have discovered enough differences to identify the giant manta and eight devil rays using the dried filters.
September 18, 2013
Cables, instruments installed in the deep sea off Pacific Northwest coast
In a seven-week cruise this past summer, oceanographers and students laid 14 miles of extension cable and installed about a dozen instruments for a historic deep-sea observatory.
September 17, 2013
Stronger winds explain puzzling growth of sea ice in Antarctica
Despite warming temperatures, Antarctic sea ice is on track to hit a record high. A new study suggests stronger polar winds can explain the recent increase in Southern Hemisphere sea ice.
September 13, 2013
Neighborhoods and UW team up to measure diesel exhaust pollution in South Seattle
The residents of the Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods in Seattle’s Duwamish Valley now know how much diesel exhaust they are exposed to. A report on findings from an air pollution study comparing these neighborhoods to Beacon Hill and Queen Anne was published today, Sept. 13.
September 11, 2013
UW engineers to make cookstoves 10 times cleaner for developing world
University of Washington engineers have received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design a better cookstove, which researchers say will use half as much fuel and cut emissions by 90 percent.
September 9, 2013
Breaking deep-sea waves reveal mechanism for global ocean mixing
Oceanographers for the first time recorded an enormous wave breaking miles below the surface in a key bottleneck for global ocean circulation.
September 4, 2013
Pico-world dragnets: Computer-designed proteins recognize and bind small molecules
Computer-designed proteins that can recognize and interact with small biological molecules are now a reality. Scientists have succeeded in creating a protein molecule that can be programmed to unite with three different steroids.
August 30, 2013
New ocean forecast could help predict fish habitat six months in advance
UW researchers and federal scientists have developed the first long-term seasonal forecast of conditions for the Northwest ocean ecosystem.
August 14, 2013
UW garners highest score possible, named again to Green Honor Roll
The University of Washington has again been named to the Princeton Review’s Green Honor Roll, receiving the highest score possible for the 2012-13 academic year.
August 8, 2013
Ocean acidification center another example of state leading the nation
Washington’s governor and state legislators in the last session created a hub at the University of Washington to coordinate research and monitoring of ocean acidification and its effects on local sea life such as oysters, clams and fish.
August 7, 2013
Regulating electron ‘spin’ may be key to making organic solar cells competitive
UW researchers have discovered a high-performance polymer that could make inexpensive, organic solar cells competitive with silicon-based cells.
August 1, 2013
Scientists review the ecological effects of sea ice loss
A UW atmospheric scientist is co-author of a review paper, published this week in the journal Science, looking at the ecological consequences of sea ice decline.
July 30, 2013
Fifty years of ecological insights earn UW biologist international award
Biologist Robert Paine has been awarded this year’s International Cosmos Prize that carries a cash award of about $408,000 and has previously gone to well-known conservationists such as David Attenborough and the leaders behind the Census of Marine Life project.
Santa’s workshop not flooded – but lots of melting in the Arctic
Widespread media reports of a lake at the North Pole don’t hold water — but scientists who deployed the monitoring buoys are watching closely as Arctic sea ice approaches its yearly minimum.
July 29, 2013
Natural affinities – unrecognized until now – may have set stage for life to ignite
It might not have been just happenstance that caused components of RNA and the earliest “cell” membranes to be in the right place at the right time to spark life.
July 22, 2013
Geochemical ‘fingerprints’ leave evidence that megafloods eroded steep gorge
For the first time, scientists have direct geochemical evidence that the 150-mile long Tsangpo Gorge, possibly the world’s deepest, was the conduit by which megafloods from glacial lakes, perhaps half the volume of Lake Erie, drained catastrophically through the Himalayas when their ice dams failed during the last 2 million years.
July 19, 2013
Nighttime heat waves quadruple in Pacific Northwest
Nighttime heat waves — events where the nighttime low is unusually hot for at least three days in a row — are becoming more common in western Washington and Oregon.
July 16, 2013
News Digest: UW unveils events calendar, ocean expedition blog
New UW events calendar now available || Follow ocean expedition via bilingual blog, photo page
July 10, 2013
Julia Parrish speaks at White House about citizen science
Julia Parrish was one of 12 “champions of change” invited to share their ideas on public engagement in science and science literacy June 25 at the White House.
July 9, 2013
Hazy days of summer: Southeast U.S. field work measures mercury, smog
Dozens of atmospheric scientists, including three University of Washington faculty members, are taking part in what’s being described as one of the largest atmospheric field campaigns in decades.
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