If you’ve ever seen Jack DeLap lead a bird walk, you can’t help but feel his passion for everything avian. Watch him parse the sounds of the forest – bending his ear for the beat of a wing, squinting for each feathered clue – and it’s impossible to tell a line between work and play for him. DeLap, a University of Washington doctoral candidate at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, has been working with Professor John Marzluff for the past few years, and his dissertation research focuses on changes in Western Washington bird communities because of localized deforestation and suburban development.
Read more »DNA detectives able to ‘count’ thousands of fish using as little as a glass of water
A mere glass full of water from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 1.2 million-gallon Open Sea tank, among the 10 largest aquariums in the world, is all scientists really needed to identify the Pacific Bluefin tuna, dolphinfish and most of the other 13,000 fish swimming there. Researchers also for the first time used DNA from water samples to discern which of the species were most plentiful in the tank.
Read more »Seattle scientist distills 2,200-page report into haiku
The findings of the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment are critically important, but reading through the long, technical document is not something the vast majority of people will do. Issued late last year, the 2000-plus page report provides a synthesis of the scientific basis for climate change through graphs, figures and text. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer and affiliate professor of oceanography Greg Johnson – a lead author for one of the IPCC chapters – took an artistic approach to sharing the report’s findings, using the medium of watercolor and haiku.
Read more »Big is not bad: Scientists call for preservation of large carnivores
The world is losing its large carnivores, their ranges are collapsing and many species are at risk of extinction. “Promoting tolerance and coexistence with large carnivores is a crucial societal challenge that will ultimately determine the fate of Earth’s largest carnivores and all that depends upon them, including humans,” write the co-authors of a review article, in the Jan. 10 issue of Science, about the largest carnivore species on Earth.
Read more »James Balog, creator of Chasing Ice, visits UW
The Future of Ice Speaker Series began with a visit from James Balog, one of several Walker-Ames speakers this year at the UW. His talk focused on his work documenting climate change affecting not only our frozen landscapes and seascapes, but the entire globe. His message was buttressed by stunning images of high-latitude icy ecosystems and time-lapsed photographs documenting the disappearance of some of the world’s largest glaciers.
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