11 news posts from March 2022

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Tim Essington to serve as director of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

Aquatic and Fishery Sciences' Tim Essington.

The UW College of the Environment is pleased to announce that Professor Tim Essington has agreed to serve for a five-year term as director of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, effective July 1, 2022. Essington is a fisheries ecologist, whose research focuses on the application of ecological knowledge to sustain fisheries and ecosystems. He has an active research program in Puget Sound examining consequences of climate change, hypoxia, and nearshore restoration on food webs, and he is also well known for his global syntheses of fish and fisheries data to reveal ecosystem responses to fishing. 

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Dean Emerita Lisa Graumlich awarded Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Medal

Lisa Graumlich

UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences professor and College of the Environment Dean Emerita Lisa Graumlich has been awarded the 2022 Seattle Aquarium Silvia Earle Medal, which honors individuals whose leadership and lifetime accomplishments reflect and advance the mission of the Seattle Aquarium. The medal was presented as part of the aquarium’s annual Ocean Conservation Honors event. Graumlich has devoted her career to studying the causes and impacts of climate change, with a special focus on using paleoecological records such as tree-rings to understand the magnitude of human impacts. 

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Spring blooms to watch for in the Seattle area

Cherry blossoms

Though Seattle’s weather can be fickle in the spring, with fleeting hints of warmth between long spells of cold and rain, the Puget Sound region is home to stunning buds and blossoms that remind locals summer is just around the corner. “Spring is my favorite time of the year for observing plants, because I love the anticipation and getting to watch things change week to week,” said Ray Larson, curator of Living Collections at the UW Botanic Gardens. 

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Moon jellies appear to be gobbling up zooplankton in Puget Sound

This aerial view shows the RV Rachel Carson inside a moon jelly aggregation on August 25, 2021, in Quartermaster Harbor. The concentration of tiny marine life known as copepods inside the moon jelly aggregation was as low as a quarter of the levels in other parts of the bay.

Swarms of jellies have been seen more frequently in Puget Sound over the past several decades, and some biologists speculate these fast-growing jellyfish will do especially well in the warmer oceans of the future. Moon jellies, or Aurelia labiata, are unique among the various jellyfish species inhabiting Puget Sound in that they form vast blooms. When populations spike, they can take over a single bay — creating a dramatic sight. 

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Farms following soil-friendly practices grow healthier food, study suggests

A person holds soil from a regenerative farm (blacker soil on the left) for comparison with soil from neighboring, conventional farm (right).

Everyone knows eating fruits and vegetables is good for your health. But these days, stores offer a dizzying array of options: organic, conventional, CSAs, local agriculture. Which ones are best for your health? A new study, published in January in the journal PeerJ, looks at how regenerative farming practices — soil-building techniques that minimize plowing, use cover crops, and plant diverse crops — affect the nutritional content of the food. 

Read more at UW News »