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Against the Current

If you take a stream ecology course, you are generally taught that as a stream winds down from its headwaters at higher elevations, the water temperature will increase fairly steeply at first, and then gradually—and predictably—approach air temperature as the stream levels off at lower elevations. But several researchers at SEFS—including doctoral student Aimee Fullerton (above) and Professors Christian Torgersen and Josh Lawler—have recently published new findings in Hydrological Processes that could change the way we think about stream ecology and temperature dynamics. Read more about this exciting research!

BLOG BITS

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All Aboard!

After many months of planning, we are very excited to announce a lease agreement with UW Fleet Services for a 30-passenger bus that we’ll be able to use for student field trips! The plan is to have the bus ready by this fall, so learn more about the bus and how you might be able to use it for your courses next year.

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SEFS Graduation Celebration: June 12!

Kind of blows the mind, but graduation is coming up a week from this with Kane Hall 130, and we’re shifting to a 10 a.m. start time, with lunch to follow. Graduating students are encouraged to RSVP and fill out the survey as soon as possible, and David Campbell is collecting photos of students for the slideshow in case you have something you'd like to send his way.

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Watch the 10 Finalists!

Two weeks ago, we announced the winners of the UW Climate Change Video Contest, and now you can watch each of the top 10 entries! Our photographer for the evening, Erin Lodi, has also posted a wonderful gallery of shots from the awards show, and we invite you to take a look and download any images you wish to keep or share.

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Tonight (6/1): An Evening in Yellowstone

Please join your fellow students and colleagues tonight at 7 p.m. in the Forest Club Room, where three student teams will present their findings from the ESRM 458 field trip to Yellowstone National Park this spring. You’ll learn about everything from elk abundance and wolf kills to avian scavengers and raven surveys—and also get to enjoy a hearty buffet of granola bars, M&Ms and fruit drinks.

UPCOMING EVENTS


June 12, 2015:

Spring Quarter Ends

June 12, 2015:

SEFS Graduation, 10 a.m., Kane 130

June 22, 2015:

Summer Quarter Begins

Sept. 23, 2015:

SEFS Annual Retreat

 

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

The 2015 UW Awards of Excellence ceremony is coming up on Thursday, June 11, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Meany Hall Auditorium. Among the honorees this year, of course, will be our own Professor Jerry Franklin, who received a 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award. Reservations are not required, so we encourage you to drop in and support Jerry for this huge accomplishment!

We’ll follow that great news with some big-time kudos for the students involved in UW’s recent divestment from coal! A number of ESRM and POE majors, via the Divest UW group, were instrumental to the campaign, including Bryce Bartl-Geller, Kelly DeForest, David Herman (who decided to join the group after Dave Peterson’s seminar last spring), Aden Kinne, Carly Marshall and Sarra Tekola from ESRM (as well as ESRM minor Mary Herman); and Sage Alexander, Morgane Arriola and Angela Feng from POE. Leading up to the UW's decision, these students conducted countless hours of research and outreach, spoke to classes, held rallies, partnered with community/environmental groups, gathered signatures, addressed the UW Board of Regents, and so much more. Amazing work!

We also have some kudos for SEFS students Sophia Winkler-Schor and Clint Robins, who were recently awarded Xi Sigma Pi Research Grants—Winkler-Schor for $500, and Robins for $575—to advance their research programs. Great stuff!

In case you haven’t had a chance to meet him yet, Ryan Benton joined our staff last week as the new financial services manager. We’re excited to have him on our team, so stop by Anderson 216 or send him an email to introduce yourself!

On May 20, SEFS doctoral student Daniel Feinberg attended the International Urban Wildlife Conference in Chicago, where he gave an oral presentation, "Conservation subdivisions: Developer perspectives on incentive-based policies for enhancing biodiversity." The presentation was part of a symposium on conservation subdivisions and drew from Feinberg’s master’s work at the University of Florida. With his doctoral research at SEFS, Feinberg is working with Professor Clare Ryan.

From May 6 to 9, SEFS grad student Ashley Blazina attended the Society of Ethnobiology Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif. The conference featured talks on subjects ranging from indigenous fishing challenges in the face of climate change for the people of coastal Louisiana, to how apple genetics have been influenced by the styles and fashions of America’s food tastes. For Blazina, the conference provided a chance to connect with experts in the field of ethnobiology and understand the various research areas of focus (as well as the areas that may need more focus). In addition to meeting researchers who have already put her in contact with potential collaborators, the event was also a great way to energize UW’s small population of ethnobiologists. Experiencing that support base has inspired her to continue her research!

KEEP SAVING THE DATE: The annual SEFS retreat has been set for Wednesday, September 23, in Merrill Hall at the Center for Urban Horticulture. More details will be available later this summer, but in the meantime please go ahead and block off that day!


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COMMITTEE NOTES

No news to report.


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SEMINAR SCHEDULES


Wildlife Science Seminar: Mondays, 3:30-4:50 p.m., KANE 120

Water Seminar: Tuesdays, 8:30-9:20 a.m., AND 223

SEFS Seminar Series: Wednesdays, 3:30-4:20 p.m., AND 223

Advanced Silviculture Seminar: Thursdays, 9:30-10:30 a.m., Odegaard Library, Room 320


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PUBLICATIONS

SEFS postdoc Michael Case, Professor Josh Lawler and doctoral student Jorge Tomasevic recently had a paper accepted in Biological Conservation, “Relative sensitivity to climate change of species in northwestern North America.” In assessing 195 species, the researchers found that amphibians and reptiles were the most sensitive to climate change of the taxa analyzed; a key driver of species’ sensitivity is a dependence on climatically sensitive habitats; and species’ sensitivity can be used to prioritize conservation and research needs.


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SEFS IN THE PRESS

Professor Sharon Doty has been studying N-fixation in poplar for many years, and Science magazine recently featured her research in a terrific story, “Leaf bacteria fertilizes trees, researchers claim.”


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ALUMNI UPDATES

We recently heard from SEFS alumnus Alex Thomas, who has accepted an offer to pursue his Ph.D. in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. He’ll be working in the lab of Professor Jill Banfield and studying soil microbial communities using 'omics' approaches (meta-genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc...). He was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to support his studies. Congratulations, Alex!