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Warmer Pacific Ocean could release millions of tons of seafloor methane

Sonar image of bubbles rising from the seafloor off the Washington coast.

Off the West Coast of the United States, methane gas is trapped in frozen layers below the seafloor. New research from the University of Washington shows that water at intermediate depths is warming enough to cause these carbon deposits to melt, releasing methane into the sediments and surrounding water. Researchers found that water off the coast of Washington is gradually warming at a depth of 500 meters, about a third of a mile down. 

Read more at UW Today »

Imaging the Arctic

Imaging the Arctic project

Imaging the Arctic is an interdisciplinary project and exhibition that explores the ecology and culture of West Greenland through the work of University of Washington marine mammal biologist Kristin Laidre, expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin,  Finnish photographer Tiina Itkonen, and graphic novelist Owen Curtsinger. The project is oriented around Laidre’s research on the impact of climate change in the Arctic, and sea ice loss on narwhals and polar bears. 

Read more on the Imaging the Arctic website »

Sea-star wasting culprit is virus

Sea-star along the Pacific coast

Disintegrating sea stars—a process described as melting, with the arms detaching and crawling away from each other—is being caused by a virus that’s been detected in West Coast waters for more than 70 years. That’s according to new findings published in late November in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by 24 co-authors including the University of Washington’s Carolyn Friedman, a professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, and Colleen Burge, who earned her bachelor’s and doctorate from UW and is now back as a postdoctoral researcher here after four years of postdoc work at Cornell University. 

Read more at UW Today »

Empowering science communication in the College of the Environment

Amplify panelists

The College of the Environment’s Science Communication Program has been advancing on numerous fronts since spring quarter. Guided by our Strategic Directions and the findings of the Science Communication Task Force, the College has been building support and expanding opportunities for our faculty, staff, and student scientists to share the process and products of their research beyond academia. The College recently hosted a campus-wide and online conversation about the evolving ways that academic scientists can communicate their research on the Internet. 

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UW-made tool displays West Coast ocean acidification data

Marc Dewey

Increasing carbon dioxide in the air penetrates into the ocean and makes it more acidic, while robbing seawater of minerals that give shellfish their crunch. The West Coast is one of the first marine ecosystems to feel its effects. A new tool doesn’t alter that reality, but it does allow scientists to better understand what’s happening and provide data to help the shellfish industry adapt to these changes. 

Read more at UW Today »