Ed Melvin/Washington Sea Grant

A new study reveals that streamer line bird deterrents developed in collaboration with Washington Sea Grant have reduced seabird bycatch in Alaska’s longline fisheries by 77 to 90 percent, saving thousands of birds per year including hundreds of albatrosses.

The study published Jan. 28 in the journal Conservation Biology, found that the technology, while relatively simple—brightly colored ribbons tied to longlines—has effectively been creating a visual barrier to deter seabirds from the baited hooks pulled behind vessels.

Researchers, including Washington Sea Grant Marine Fisheries Scientist Ed Melvin, found that bycatch rates remain much lower than the pre-streamer line days, but also observed a recent increase in numbers of birds hooked, driven largely by a small number of boats.

The study draws upon 23 years of detailed fishery bycatch data, and suggests that investment and ownership by the fishermen was the greatest determinant of success in reducing seabird bycatch. “It’s really to the industry’s credit that they were fully engaged in the research and started implementing streamer lines two to three years before they became mandatory,” said Melvin. “The fishermen owned the solution from start to finish.”

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U.S. Forest Service/Wikimedia

Under climate change, plants and animals will shift their habitats to track the conditions they are adapted for. As they do, the lands surrounding rivers and streams offer natural migration routes that will take on a new importance as temperatures rise.

An open-access study led by the University of Washington pinpoints which riverside routes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana will be the most important for animals trying to navigate a changing climate. The study was published this fall in PLOS One.

“This corridor network is already there, and it’s already important for animal movement,” said lead author Meade Krosby, a scientist in the UW’s Climate Impacts Group. “Under climate change these will become ‘superhighways’ for animals that are seeking new places to live. We’ve identified ones that could be priorities for conservation and restoration.”

Co-authors are David Theobald at Conservation Science Partners, Robert Norheim at the UW’s Climate Impacts Group, and the late Brad McRae at The Nature Conservancy.

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David Butman/University of Washington

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. One consequence of that trend is the thawing of permafrost, a layer of earth that has remained frozen for thousands of years in some areas. This frozen soil and vegetation currently holds more than twice the carbon found in the atmosphere.

As permafrost across northern Alaska, Canada, Siberia and other high-latitude regions thaws, microbes in the soil consume organic materials, releasing carbon dioxide or methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas, into lakes and the atmosphere.

But a warmer, wetter climate may also cause more carbon from plants on land to move into lakes. Greater flow of carbon from plants and soils into Arctic lakes stimulates greater greenhouse gas emissions from bodies of water. And in a largely unstudied region with millions of lakes, the amount of carbon moving from the land into lakes, and ultimately into the atmosphere, remains unknown.

New research suggests many lakes pose little threat to global carbon levels, at least for now. In the Arctic’s flat, arid regions dotted with thousands of lakes — a landscape that makes up about a quarter of the entire Arctic region — many lakes are functioning like self-contained units, not releasing much carbon dioxide.

The study was published in Nature Geoscience journal by School of Environmental And Forest Sciences (SEFS) postdoc Matthew Bogard, Assistant Professor David Butman, doctoral student Catherine Kuhn; School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences Professor Gordon Holtgrieve; and colleagues at UW, Florida State University and the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Most of us rely on the weather forecast to choose our outfit or make outdoor plans for the weekend. But conditions underwater can also be useful to know in advance, especially if you’re an oyster farmer, a fisher or even a recreational diver.

A new University of Washington computer model can predict conditions in Puget Sound and off the coast of Washington three days into the future. LiveOcean, completed this past summer, uses marine currents, river discharges and weather above the water to create the forecasts.

“It’s like a weather forecast of the ocean in our region,” said lead developer Parker MacCready, a UW professor of oceanography. The project is the culmination of about 15 years of work. “It started off small, modeling parts of Puget Sound, and went to modeling the Columbia River and the coastal ocean nearby, to modeling the whole region. We’re making the model bigger and more realistic all the time.”

Unlike existing marine forecasts that tell boaters the wind and waves out on the water, this model drops below the water’s surface to predict water temperature, salinity, oxygen, nitrogen, pH, chlorophyll — a sign of biological productivity — and aragonite saturation, the most important factor in shell formation, from the surface down to the seafloor.

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Rep. Pramila Jayapal/Twitter

UW College of the Environment Dean Lisa Graumlich joined Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) at the State of the Union on February 5, 2019. Dean Graumlich was on-hand to help focus attention on the urgency of climate change and attended the address as a guest of Representative Jayapal.

“The Washington Congressional delegation have been long-time and staunch champions of UW’s College of the Environment, and particularly our efforts on sustainability, ocean acidification, forest fires and climate change. As scientists, we know that the world has already warmed as a result of human activity,” said Dean Graumlich. “Our champions share our understanding that continued global warming is and will continue to pose challenges to our economy, our culture and our ecosystem. It is an honor to be the guest of Rep. Jayapal at the State of the Union as she continues to use her voice to raise awareness of this issue and its critical impacts.”

Read more about Lisa’s visit:

• Jayapal Brings Climate Science Expert As State of the Union Guest (house.gov)
• Video: “Getting ready for SOTU” (Facebook)
• The Energy 202: Democrats spotlight climate change with their State of the Union guests (Washington Post)

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