Two Atmospheric Sciences researchers were honored by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) for their contributions to the weather, water and climate research community. Shuyi Chen, professor and incoming UW Environment associate dean for research, received the Sverdrup Gold Medal. Cecilia Bitz, Atmospheric Sciences department chair and professor, received the Syukuro Manabe Climate Research Award. The AMS advances the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications and services for the benefit of society.

Chen’s research involves observation of how the atmosphere and ocean interact with hurricanes and typhoons in tropical areas, and the use of mathematical models to predict weather patterns. During the 2005 hurricane season Chen monitored hurricanes Rita, Katrina and Wilma aboard Doppler-equipped aircraft to help create stronger hurricane prediction models. Chen was previously a professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science where she led a research group that developed a new wave-ocean model designed to research and predict hurricane patterns.

Bitz studies the role that sea ice plays in shaping the climate in high latitudes. She is interested not only in our present and future climates, but also climates of the past. She is actively engaged in research on improving prediction of Arctic sea ice and sea ice data assimilation, investigating wave-ice and coupled air-sea-ice interactions that control large-scale climate. As a well-known expert in her field, she leads several projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and has been called to testify to the U.S. Senate on Arctic climate change.

Read More

Jessica Kelley

Exceptionally hot and dry weather this summer has fueled dozens of wildfires across the western U.S., spewing smoke across the country and threatening to register yet another record-breaking year. More than a century of fire exclusion has created dense forests packed with excess trees and brush that ignite and spread fires quickly under increasingly warm and dry conditions.

Scientists largely agree that reducing these fuels is needed to make our forests and surrounding communities more resilient to wildfires and climate change. But policy and action have not kept pace with the problem and suppressing fires is still the norm, even as megafires become more common and destructive.

Seeing the urgent need for change, a team of scientists from leading research universities, conservation organizations and government laboratories across the West has produced a synthesis of the scientific literature that clearly lays out the established science and strength of evidence on climate change, wildfire and forest management for seasonally dry forests. The goal is to give land managers and others across the West access to a unified resource that summarizes the best-available science so they can make decisions about how to manage their landscapes.

“Based on our extensive review of the literature and the weight of the evidence, the science of adaptive management is strong and justifies a range of time- and research-tested approaches to adapt forests to climate change and wildfires,” said co-lead author Susan Prichard, a research scientist in the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

These approaches include some thinning of dense forests in fire-excluded areas, prescribed burning, reducing fuels on the ground, allowing some wildfires to burn in backcountry settings under favorable fuel and weather conditions, and revitalizing Indigenous fire stewardship practices. The findings were published Aug. 2 as an invited three-paper feature in the journal Ecological Applications.

Read More

This week, a few members of the UW News team joined glaciologists from the UW Department of Earth & Space Sciences on a trip to Mt. Baker. Students that came along got a pop quiz on glaciology from their professor on the hike up, and learned about how the recent heat wave impacted the snow melt on the ice. Taryn Black, a PhD candidate in the department, led the hike and is featured in this video.

Read More

The College of the Environment is pleased to announce the following undergraduate and graduate scholarships awarded for 2021-22.

Del Rio Endowed Environmental Studies Scholarship

The Del Rio Family Foundation established the Del Rio Endowed Scholarship Fund for Environmental Studies to encourage and support students with an interest in the environment who are participating in the Educational Opportunity Program. The Program promotes academic success and graduation for under-represented ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged and first-generation college students at the University of Washington. The Foundation hopes that through their studies and participation in real-world environmental research and problem-solving, students will broaden their personal horizons to include issues of global concern and will develop a passion and the skill set for making a difference in the world.

Recipients:

• Aidan Dealy, Incoming Freshman, Earth & Space Sciences (4 year award)
• Camille Andrew, Incoming Junior Transfer Student, Environmental Studies (2 year award)
• Caitlin (Caity) Rigg, Incoming Junior Transfer Student, Environmental Studies (2 year award)
• KyungJae Lee, Incoming Freshman, Oceanography (4 year award)

Nancy Wilcox Endowed Scholarship

This scholarship is made possible by the generosity of former UW Provost Phyllis Wise, who established it to support students pursuing degrees in the College of the Environment. Wise named the endowment in honor and memory of her late sister, Nancy E. Wang Wilcox, a middle school teacher who tried to develop the minds of young adolescents using creative and innovative ways of learning. It is this legacy that inspired Provost Wise to establish this endowment to carry on her sister’s commitment to helping others achieve their educational goals.

Recipients (*continued funding from 2020-21)

• Raphael Bakin*, Junior, Atmospheric Sciences
• Ella Coleman, Incoming Freshman, Atmospheric Sciences
• Amanda (Mandy) Jackson*, Junior, Earth & Space Sciences
• Henry Li, Junior, Environmental Studies
• Kortney Maeda, Incoming Freshman, Environmental Studies

Clarence H. Campbell Endowed Lauren Donaldson Scholarship

Clarence H. Campbell established this scholarship in memory of Lauren “Doc” Donaldson to support students in the Schools of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Marine and Environmental Affairs and Oceanography. Professor Donaldson earned his MS and Ph.D. degrees from the UW in 1931. He served on the faculty of the School of Fisheries from 1932 until his retirement in 1973. Doc was a world-renowned expert in the development of fish stocks and trained countless students in freshwater fisheries research and management. Clarence Campbell, ’30, established this fund to recognize Doc’s lasting influence.

Recipients:

• Souta (Bill) Saechao, Incoming Junior Transfer Student, Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
• Carolyn Kounellas, Incoming Freshman, Marine Biology
• Jenna Callan, Incoming Freshman, Marine Biology
• Irissa Danke, Senior, Marine Biology
• Leah Davis, Junior, Marine Biology
• Sophie Jenness, Incoming Freshman, Oceanography
• Caleb Flaim, Junior, Oceanography & Environmental Studies
• Dominic Eastburn, Incoming Junior Transfer Student, Oceanography

Dani Elenga Environment Scholarship

Sigrid Elenga and Steve Smyth established the Dani Elenga Environment Scholarship in memory of their daughter, Dani Elenga. The Scholarship encourages and supports students with an interest in the environment who are participating in the Educational Opportunity Program, which promotes academic success and graduation for under-represented ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged and first-generation college students at the UW.

Recipients:

• Melissa Mendoza, Sophomore, Atmospheric Sciences
• Elysia Viengkham, Senior, Earth & Space Sciences
• Camille Andrew, Incoming Junior Transfer Student, Environmental Studies
• Lucy Lipscomb, Junior, Marine Biology

Vontver Environment and Human Health Endowed Scholarship

Lou Vontver was fortunate to have career changing experiential learning opportunities while serving as a flight medical officer with the U.S. Air Force in the Far East. He saw the effect of poverty, demography and environment on human health and well-being. Those experiences led him to a career he had never imagined during medical school. He finished a reproductive endocrinology fellowship, a residency in Obstetrics-Gynecology, a Master of Education, and became a faculty member of the UW School of Medicine. He tried to impress on students the importance of poverty, demography, and environment on human health. He was also a member of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR). He is now an active member of WPSR’s task force on climate change and has learned even more about its effect on human health. With this endowment Vontver hopes to give students in the College of the Environment opportunities for experiential learning such as he had, which hopefully will inspire them to pursue studies on the environment and human health.

Recipient:

• Russell Botulinski, Senior, Environmental Science & Terrestrial Resource Management

Michael and Rebecca McGoodwin Endowed Scholarship in Environmental Conservation, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences

Michael McGoodwin established an endowment to support undergraduate students in the College of the Environment in December 2019. This endowment honors the life and memory of Rebecca McGoodwin and their shared passion for the natural environment. By supporting undergraduates on the basis of academic merit and financial need, this scholarship helps students who are pursuing the study, investigation, and conservation of the biosphere and its protection from human impacts. Areas of study may include but are not limited to, the study of relevant Earth and atmospheric sciences such as aquatic and terrestrial habitats including oceans, soils, forests, atmospheric physics and chemistry, and the interactions of these with past and current life forms.

Recipient:

• Anna Gilmore, Senior, Environmental Science & Terrestrial Resource Management

College of the Environment Scholarship

This scholarship is made possible by the generosity of donors. The scholarship was created to support both undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in the College of the Environment.

Recipients:

College of the Environment Top-Off Award

This award is offered to top-ranked incoming graduate student applicants across the College and provides a one-time payment to be used as the student sees fit to enhance their scholarly work at the University of Washington.

Recipients:

• Kristen Falcinelli, Incoming Graduate Student, Oceanography
• Jonathan Gates, Incoming Graduate Student, Earth and Space Sciences
• Asiya Hussein, Incoming Graduate Student, Marine and Environmental Affairs
• Turtle McCloskey-Potter, Incoming Graduate Student, Environmental and Forest Sciences
• Spencer Ressel, Incoming Graduate Student, Atmospheric Sciences
• Ben Sullendaer, Incoming Graduate Student, Environmental and Forest Sciences
• Brendan Wallace, Incoming Graduate Student, Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management
• Joshua Zahner, Incoming Graduate Student, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

Integral Environmental Big Data Research Fund Award

This funding award supports graduate students who are incorporating a big data approach to their scholarly work. In this context, a big data project is defined as one where the student is focused on extracting information from large datasets through the use of interesting, innovative computational and analytic approaches, and where the object of the work is an exploration of emergent patterns and/or relationships of scientific interest.

Recipient

• Rachel Fricke, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (advisor: Julian Olden)

Project: Emerging technologies to assess human benefits from and risks to water resources

Hall Conservation Genetics Research Fund

This award is made possible by the generosity of Benjamin and Margaret Hall. During his 38 years in genetics, UW Professor Emeritus of Genome Sciences and Biology Benjamin “Ben” Hall made many key discoveries, including the patented invention “Expression of Polypeptides in Yeast” which the UW- licensed for the production of vaccines against Hepatitis B Virus and Human papillomavirus, as well as Human Insulin, and other recombinant proteins. This funding award supports graduate students working in the field of conservation genetics.

Recipients:

• Ashlee Abrantes, Environmental and Forest Sciences (advisors: Kristiina Vogt)

Project: Environmental DNA as an index for freshwater conservation and management

• Hannah Dawson, Oceanography (advisor: Jodi Young)

Project: Characterizing potential drivers of organic matter turnovers in changing polar oceans: first measures of RNA viruses in sea ice

• Mary Fisher, Environmental and Forest Sciences (advisor: Phillip Levin)

Project: Tracking the ecological impact of the Invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas) with DNA metabarcoding

• Anne Polyakov, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (advisor: Andrew Berdahl)

Project: Characterizing genetically distinct ectomycorrhizal fungal communities adapted to a natural nitrogen gradient along salmon streams

Read More

Idaho Bureau of Land Management/Flickr

Firefighters have reported that Western wildfires are starting earlier in the morning and dying down later at night, hampering their ability to recover and regroup before the next day’s flareup.

A study by University of Washington and U.S. Forest Service scientists shows why: The drying power of nighttime air over much of the Western U.S. has increased dramatically in the past 40 years. The paper was published online in July in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

“Nighttime is an important time in fire management. When fires die down at night it gives firefighters a chance to rest, move equipment and strategize. The problem firefighters are reporting is an unexpected increase in nighttime fire activity,” said lead author Andy Chiodi, a UW research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean & Ecosystem Studies, a joint center with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Our findings support that this has been going on over the last 40 years over much, but not all, of the Western U.S.”

Earth’s atmosphere is warming due to climate change, and warming in many places has been greater at night. Warmer night air had been suspected as the culprit altering the daily pattern of wildfire activity, with burns continuing later into the night.

Read More

Samantha Leigh/California State University, Dominguez Hills

Contrary to what popular media portrays, we actually don’t know much about what sharks eat. Even less is known about how they digest their food, and the role they play in the larger ocean ecosystem.

For more than a century, researchers have relied on flat sketches of sharks’ digestive systems to discern how they function — and how what they eat and excrete impacts other species in the ocean. Now, researchers have produced a series of high-resolution, 3D scans of intestines from nearly three dozen shark species that will advance the understanding of how sharks eat and digest their food.

The research team from California State University Dominguez Hills, the University of Washington and University of California, Irvine, published its findings July 21 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers primarily used a computerized tomography (CT) scanner at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories to create 3D images of shark intestines, which came from specimens preserved at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. The machine works like a standard CT scanner used in hospitals: A series of X-ray images is taken from different angles, then combined using computer processing to create three-dimensional images. This allows researchers to see the complexities of a shark intestine without having to dissect or disturb it.

“CT scanning is one of the only ways to understand the shape of shark intestines in three dimensions,” said co-author Adam Summers, a professor based at UW Friday Harbor Labs who has led a worldwide effort to scan the skeletons of fishes and other vertebrate animals. “Intestines are so complex — with so many overlapping layers, that dissection destroys the context and connectivity of the tissue. It would be like trying to understand what was reported in a newspaper by taking scissors to a rolled-up copy. The story just won’t hang together.”

From their scans, the researchers discovered several new aspects about how shark intestines function. It appears these spiral-shaped organs slow the movement of food and direct it downward through the gut, relying on gravity in addition to peristalsis, the rhythmic contraction of the gut’s smooth muscle. Its function resembles the one-way valve designed by Nikola Tesla more than a century ago that allows fluid to flow in one direction, without backflow or assistance from any moving parts (watch a video of how the Tesla valve works).

Read More