Shuyi Chen to serve as College of the Environment’s Associate Dean for Research
Shuyi Chen
Shuyi Chen has agreed to serve as the UW College of the Environment’s associate dean for research, effective September 16, 2021. In this role she will foster multidisciplinary collaborations, promote and support the range of basic and applied research programs across the College and University, and help PIs identify opportunities to partner and collaborate with universities and research organizations both in the U.S. and around the world.
Shuyi S. Chen is a professor of Atmospheric Sciences and a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Her research focuses on high-impact weather such as hurricanes and intraseasonal variability that affect the global weather and climate using airborne and satellite observations and numerical models. She led a research group at UW that developed a next-generation, high-resolution atmosphere-wave-ocean coupled model to better understand and predict hurricanes, winter storms, coastal flooding and ocean transport in events of oil spill and other hazards. Chen has been a lead scientist of many major national and international field campaigns. She has served several times as a leading expert to testify before the US Congress on future weather research and forecasting. She served as the Vice Chair of the National Academies’ Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate. She has been elected as Councilor of the AMS and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of 120 North American universities on research and training in atmospheric sciences and related Earth system sciences.
Chen succeeds Bruce Nelson, who will be returning to his full-time appointment as a professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences after serving the last year in his second stint as the associate dean for research.
Owen will provide overall leadership for the programs, facilities and staff of the UWBG. She will also take the lead on strengthening the organizational and community partnerships that are so central to the work of the organization. She comes to UWBG and SEFS with a love for all things plants and extensive experience bridging science management, communication and public engagement. She previously served as a program officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she developed and managed grants in research and development, with a focus on leveraging discovery science and innovation for smallholder farmers in low-income countries. Her work focused on addressing pest and disease threats to crop production.
Josh Lawler, faculty director of UW Botanic Gardens.
Lawler has been a professor in SEFS since 2007, specializing in climate change impacts, conservation science, landscape ecology, nature-human interactions and wildlife science. He has led the Center for Creative Conservation and is currently director of the University’s Nature and Health Initiative, a program of Earthlab. His appointment as faculty director includes appointment as the Orin and Althea Soest Chair in Urban Horticulture, and his work will focus on supporting, sustaining and advancing the academic research and teaching programs of the organization in partnership with Owen.
Two UW Environment researchers elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021
Professor Lisa J. Graumlich
Two scientists at the College of the Environment are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 announcement. New members were chosen for “their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”
Current academy members selected 29 of the new members. An additional nine were elected by virtue of joining one of the National Academies.
Daniel Jaffe, professor of atmospheric sciences, was elected “for leadership in monitoring and understanding the global transport of atmospheric pollutants from energy production, wildfire, and other sources, as well as science communication and service that has informed citizens and enhanced public policy.”
Last ice-covered parts of summertime Arctic Ocean vulnerable to climate change
Kristin Laidre/University of Washington
A polar bear is perched on a thick chunk of sea ice north of Greenland in March 2016. These thicker, older pieces of sea ice don’t fully protect the larger region from losing its summer ice cover.
In a rapidly changing Arctic, one area might serve as a refuge — a place that could continue to harbor ice-dependent species when conditions in nearby areas become inhospitable. This region north of Greenland and the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago has been termed the Last Ice Area. But research led by the University of Washington suggests that parts of this area are already showing a decline in summer sea ice.
Last August, sea ice north of Greenland showed its vulnerability to the long-term effects of climate change, according to a study published July 1 in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment.
“This area has long been expected to be the primary refuge for ice-dependent species because it is one of the last places where we expect summer sea ice to survive in the Arctic,” said co-author Kristin Laidre, associate professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and principal scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.
How the last ice-covered regions will fare matters for polar bears that use the ice to hunt for seals that use the ice for building dens for their young, and for walruses that use the ice as a platform for foraging.
The study focused on sea ice in August 2020 in the Wandel Sea, an area that used to be covered year-round in thick, multiyear ice.
Remotely-piloted sailboats monitor ‘cold pools’ in tropical environments
Saildrone, Inc.
Saildrone uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), like the one pictured here, made measurements of atmospheric cold pools in remote regions of the tropical Pacific.
Conditions in the tropical ocean affect weather patterns worldwide. The most well-known examples are El Niño or La Niña events, but scientists believe other key elements of the tropical climate remain undiscovered.
In a study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists from the University of Washington and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory use remotely-piloted sailboats to gather data on cold air pools, or pockets of cooler air that form below tropical storm clouds.
“Atmospheric cold pools are cold air masses that flow outward beneath intense thunderstorms and alter the surrounding environment,” said lead author Samantha Wills, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies. “They are a key source of variability in surface temperature, wind and moisture over the ocean.”
The paper is one of the first tropical Pacific studies to rely on data from Saildrones, wind-propelled sailing drones with a tall, hard wing and solar-powered scientific instruments. Co-authors on the NOAA-funded study are Dongxiao Zhang at CICOES and Meghan Cronin at NOAA.
New 3D images of shark intestines show they function like Nikola Tesla’s valve
Samantha Leigh/California State University, Dominguez Hills
A Tesla valve, shown in the diagram above, produces one-way flow without any backflow or use of mechanical parts. A spiral intestine, shown under the valve diagram, appears to have a similar structure.
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).
Citizen scientists and the fight against the Asian giant hornet
WSDA
The Asian giant hornet found by Marysville resident in June 2021
Hornets the size of golf balls may seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but unfortunately as one Marysville, Washington resident learned, they are real and living right here in western Washington. On June 4, the first Asian giant hornet of 2021 was reported to officials in Snohomish County. The sighting was the farthest south this invasive species has been reported since it was first discovered in 2019 in British Columbia.
So, what exactly is an invasive species and why should we be concerned? “Invasive species are considered the species that have become introduced and often established outside their native ranges and cause economic or environmental impacts that are considered undesirable,” explains aquatic and fishery sciences professor and ecologist Julian Olden.
Any species that is non-native and causes harm to the local environment is considered invasive. Often, they have no natural predators to keep their population in check, and are wildly successful at outcompeting native species. Invasive species can reduce biodiversity by overwhelming an area, reducing both forage opportunities and habitat for native species.
This is of particular concern with Asian giant hornets, also known as murder hornets, who have the ability to displace entire colonies of bees native to Washington. This could have devastating impacts on beekeeping, crop pollination and the local insect population.
“Recent sightings of Asian giant hornets in Washington have prompted serious concerns that local bee populations and the ecosystem functions they provide may be in imminent danger,” says Olden.
In late September 2019 a beekeeper outside Blaine, Washington reported the first known Asian giant hornet in the United States. Less than a month later, another murder hornet was found in Blaine by another beekeeper and one more was confirmed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) in December. In 2020 they were detected in two more nearby towns, indicating the range of this species may be limited to the Whatcom County area.
With raised concern, WSDA issued instructions for residents to trap any giant hornets they found. In addition to setting traps, citizens were also asked to report any hornet’s whereabouts via their “Track! Don’t Whack!” campaign in order to understand their flight patterns and to determine where potential nests are located.
WSDA
The first eradication of an Asian giant hornet nest in the United States.
Information campaigns, news stories and eagerness from the public to battle this invasive species has been successful. People used orange juice and rice cooking wine traps as lures and captured both worker and queen Asian giant hornets, including one live specimen. These efforts also led to the detection and eradication of a nest in Blaine.
“These citizen scientists set traps and report suspected sightings, having a major impact on our ability to find, track and eradicate Asian giant hornet nests,” says Karla Salp, public engagement specialist for the WSDA. “Last year half of our detections and all of Canada’s detections were from public reports. Without the report that a resident made in September in the Blaine area, as well as support and assistance from the neighbors, it is unlikely that we would have found and eradicated the Asian giant hornet nest last fall.”
Last month, a resident of Marysville reported a dead Asian giant hornet, but genetic testing revealed it was not related to the Whatcom County specimens. This is important for scientists to know as people should be trapping in a wider radius from the initial nest if same genetics were indicated. Researchers at WSDA believe the specimen in Marysville arrived in the US dead and perhaps fell out of whatever it was hitching a ride on, but citizen scientist trapping efforts in Snohomish County are encouraged to be sure.
While it is still too early to determine the prognosis of the Asian giant hornet invasion in Washington state, the one year of data collected seems to indicate that the Asian giant hornet is still only in Whatcom County. “We know that, based on the fact that Asian giant hornets are an apex predator and usually nest in the ground or in tree cavities, it won’t be easy to find them, especially given the amount of suitable habitat,” says Salp. “It is going to be a very big challenge to eradicate them. That being said, everything that the public is doing to help us is really giving us a fighting chance.”
From the moment Asian giant hornets were reported in both British Columbia and Washington, the response has been a multiagency effort. The Washington Invasive Species Council received the first report and turned it over to WSDA for verification. Many state, federal, Canadian, and local agencies have since collaborated on the response. With the different roles each agency plays, it is vital to coordinate and fight the threat of Asian giant hornets together. Response agencies partners include everything from parks and recreation to transportation, researchers, public health officials, regulatory officials, scientists, insect identification experts, and citizen scientists.
What to do if you see an Asian Giant Hornet
Take a photo if safe do so and report it to the Washington State Department of Agriculture at: agr.wa.gov/hornets, hornets@agr.wa.gov, or 1-800-443-6684.
If you find a dead specimen, hold on to it in case it is needed for testing.
Citizen scientist trapping started July 1. If you are interested in participating, you can gather your supplies and get ready by visiting the WSDA’s Trapping for Asian Giant Hornets website for more information.
