October 2019

Oct 29, 2019

College of the Environment

State of the College 2019

College of the Environment Dean Lisa J. Graumlich — College of the Environment Dean and Mary Laird Wood Professor Lisa J. Graumlich

Dear colleagues,

Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for the State of the College at the Seattle campus on Wednesday, October 23rd.

In my address, I shared my thoughts on the great work we have done together, and I can’t emphasize the “we” in that statement enough.

Throughout the College, we have spent the last 10 years continuously evolving our science and growing its impact. Your efforts have helped to firmly establish the College as an institution that is renowned worldwide for transforming and advancing the way scientists take the pulse of the planet. From molecules to planetary systems, scientists at the College are translating their work to deeply engage others, ensuring that our research informs environmental policy, law and business, and culture. I am looking forward to the next two years, closing out my role as Dean, which comes to an end in 2021.

A year from now, the Provost will be assembling the search committee to identify the next dean. That may seem like a long way off, but we have already taken the first steps in succession planning. A key part of that planning is to reflect and look at where we have come over the past decade.

A College renowned for its impact on science and society

When the College was established in 2008, its mission was clear:

“The UW has an unparalleled opportunity to create a College of the Environment, that can significantly advance the fundamental environmental sciences. As one of the most respected public research universities, we have a responsibility, to tackle the most complex issues, of our time: sustaining and improving our environment.”

Our diversity was and is our strength. But from the beginning, it’s also made things a challenge. At that time, there were different disciplinary cultures to accommodate, and each unit brought with it a different blend of teaching, research and service — and all of this coincided with the Great Recession! Since that time, the College of the Environment has evolved into a place where scientists and scholars are supported and where they can excel.
We have acquired shared resources for fundamental environmental science. With research vessels like the Carson, shared state-of-the-art infrastructure such as ISO Lab, Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array and the Pacific NW Seismic Network along with facilities such as Friday Harbor Laboratories. The College is funding and investing in the tools and assets you need to teach, study and research successfully.
We have created the perfect place for talented scientists to explore ideas in truly interdisciplinary ways. Our faculty, students and staff are forward-looking and building communities and pathways between the disciplines. The College builds on the UW’s rich history of collaborative interdisciplinary initiatives and we offer students opportunities for cross-unit teaching and learning through the Program on Climate Change and the newly launched Future Rivers National Science Foundation Research Traineeship.

The Dean’s office supports you in your quest for success.

Helping you attract more resources, recognition and funding. The College of the Environment Marketing and Communications team shares stories of your research and its impact with audiences across the UW and the planet, and coordinates responses to emerging issues such as wildfires, climate change impacts and environmental crises. More than 25% of our faculty have elevated their communication skills through the Science Communications programs run by the College. And our stellar advancement team helped raise more than $30 million last year alone — funds that we use for some of our most risky and cutting-edge work.
Helping you manage risks. We know that fieldwork needs to be safe as well as productive, and we are committed to keeping our people safe from all threats, be they crevasses, car accidents, or circumstances of gender harassment in the field. Through the GROE program (Graduate Research Opportunity Enhancement) the dean’s office can underwrite your funding risk while you have funding proposals pending, allowing you to attract the best people for your project and realize the greatest possibilities for your work. We’re also part of the solution when a building nearly burns down or a ship nearly sinks!
Supporting engaged learning. The dean’s office helps faculty teach students in ways that they want to learn. Through deep collaboration between units within and outside of the College, we created the Marine Biology Major, which continues to attract talented undergraduate students to the marine sciences. Similarly, the Dean’s office made critical early investments in the MESSAGe program, led by Earth and Space Sciences, preparing students for working in non-academic environments.

Building on a strong history of public engagement on critical social and environmental issues.

Producing science that is not just usable, but is used. The College builds on our strong history of public engagement that puts stakeholder needs front and center in our work. The Center for International Trade in Forest Products, CINTRAFOR, in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, serves the emerging needs of the sustainable building materials community by forecasting the demand for cross-laminated timber. Another forward-looking initiative is the Ocean Modeling Forum, a collaboration between the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and NOAA Fisheries. The Forum brings quantitative fishery models together with the people who care about a particular ocean resource to decide what’s most important for its vitality and the communities it serves. The Climate Impacts Group has consistently served the region for 24 years, providing robust and relevant science to a wide range of communities and institutions affected by climate change.
Addressing problems of growing complexity and scope. We are tackling global emerging issues through work right here in Washington state. When Ocean Acidification became a pressing issue ten years ago, our faculty moved quickly and decisively to re-orient their research programs to understand the problem and engage with industry and policymakers on solution paths. Today, the Washington Ocean Acidification Center provides a foundation for proactive strategies and policies to protect marine ecosystems and the people connected to them.
Pushing the envelope through EarthLab. When I talk to faculty, whether early-career or our most senior leaders, they want more opportunities to push the envelope–in science and in engagement–on the wicked problems of our time. But innovation is inherently risky and needs a special type of nurturing and support in the context of the College. In 2019, EarthLab provided Innovation Grants totaling $250,000 to six teams working across units and campuses. The funds will be used to find creative ways to give knowledge, tools and a voice to communities not typically participating in the political process and yet most impacted by environmental issues. The Request for Proposals for the next round is open, so we’re looking to build on this success.

How do we protect this invaluable culture?

And, how can we build on it?

I believe we can sustain the College’s success by banding together to discover our areas of commonality and stay focused on society’s greatest needs. I feel strongly, that, with a leadership refresh, the College will move into the next decade renewed and strengthened.

You, faculty, staff, and students, play an essential part in bringing that vision to reality. As environmental scholars, we commit ourselves to understanding the world around us. Learning from each other, and building upon each idea. The College of the Environment represents millions of those ideas. Your ideas.

Let’s continue to share our ideas with each other and with the communities that have the most to gain from the advancement of our science.

This is our hallmark.

Lisa J. Graumlich
Dean, College of the Environment
Mary Laird Wood Professor

Oct 26, 2019

Take the UW Climate Survey

Do you learn, live or work at the UW? You have the opportunity to help make the University a better place for everyone.

We want to hear from every undergraduate, graduate and professional student and every faculty and staff member.

From Oct. 8 through Nov. 8, 2019, all staff, students and faculty across UW are invited to participate in a confidential survey to help the University make positive, lasting changes that will create a better living, learning and working environments on all campuses.

The survey should take between 20 and 30 minutes to complete, and covers the full range of experiences on our campuses. It includes questions about your sense of inclusion and belonging. It also asks about sexual harassment and sexual assault. You can read about the UW Climate Survey in more detail on their website.

Your responses will help inform the UW’s work to create a welcoming campus where community members can succeed and thrive.

The greater the response, the better the UW will understand how to improve the climate on our campuses.

Take the survey »

Oct 14, 2019

A new Blob (aka marine heat wave) along our coast? See what Nick Bond has to say about it

In the fall of 2014, Nick Bond—research scientist at JISAO and Washington State’s Climatologist—dubbed a patch of unusually warm water off the North American coast ‘The Blob’. The warmer temperatures went on to wreak havoc in marine environments over the following year. Now, another slug of warm water has appeared, this time stretching all the way to Hawaii. We sat down with Bond to talk about this new Blob—which is an anomaly in the ocean more commonly referred to as a marine heat wave—and what we might expect.

Nick Bond, Washington State climatologist.

We’re seeing a new Blob form along our coast. How does it compare to the one in 2014?

At its maximum right now, well off the coast of Oregon, it’s about three degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) above normal. It’s very warm in the Gulf of Alaska, and the Chukchi Sea is really hot. The present event is at least as big as it was in 2014—it doesn’t extend as far down into Southern and Baja, California like the last one, but it does extend a little bit further out to the southwest. For most of its geographic extent, it looks like the layer of warm water is relatively shallow, roughly 20-30 meters deep, whereas with the Blob of 2014-16 was more like 100 or more meters deeper.

We know that the last one had profound impacts on the marine ecosystem. Can you talk about those impacts?

We noticed the warmer water in the summer of 2014, but it really started manifesting in real noticeable impacts later in 2014 as that warm water moved into the coastal region. One of the first real effects we saw was a massive die off of seabirds along the Washington-Oregon coast, Cassin’s auklets—they were emaciated. The auklets target krill and large zooplankton that depend on cold water. Then in 2015, all sorts of things happened—higher mortality of marine mammals, from sea lions down in California to fin whales in the Gulf of Alaska. There were also harmful algal blooms that got a lot of attention. Soon there were a lot of unusual sightings of warm water species, including things like ocean sunfish that were up in the Gulf of Alaska. So there were all sorts of disruptions to the marine environment.

What about now? Are we seeing these same disruptions to marine organisms?

It’s a little early—we don’t really know how this one is going to play out.

How long can we expect this current Blob to stick around?

The seasonal weather predictions are suggesting that as the storms start rolling through the north Pacific, the warm water temperatures will get damped down. In most cases, as storm systems go by there’s an increase of winds that draws more heat out of the ocean. Moreover, the winds and associated waves with those storms cause more mixing of the upper ocean, bringing up cooler water from below which cools the surface layers. We think for this year it’ll stay on the warm side, but not as warm as it was with this past event.

Why are we seeing this happen, and is this something that we can expect more of?

The climate community is looking into that. The easy answer is that it is random variability in the atmosphere and ocean. It’s not like we’ve gone into a different sort of climate regime where the weather patterns have really shifted or anything like that. But we also know that the oceans are warming; there’s a baseline upward trend in temperatures. So that means when we get these perturbations, they’re happening on top of what’s already an elevated baseline. I think the important point is that with climate change, at least so far, it’s just making it that much worse.

What can we learn about the future from these events?

From the ecosystem point of view, we can use these events to a certain extent as a dress rehearsal for the kind of changes we’re anticipating with global warming. In very rough terms, the climate models as a group are showing that the temperatures in these warm events are going to be what the normal temperatures are in the middle of the century. We’re certainly going to have warm and cool events in the future, so with that baseline warming it means that when you have those warm events in the future, they’re going to be out there in uncharted territory. And then it’ll take a cool event in the future to create something like what we see as normal conditions today.

One more question: if you had to rename The Blob, what you name it?

Yeah, well, you know, I have some regrets about coming up with that four-letter word, you know, digging deep into my vocabulary, of course. Yeah, boy. I think the term ‘marine heat wave’ is better. Maybe it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same way, but I’m comfortable with that. And I think that’s better than just saying ‘event’. You know, you hear the word ‘event’ and you think, “What do you mean, like Elton John is coming to town or something?”

Oct 30, 2019

Creepy, slimy and flat-out gross: marine edition

To commemorate the season of all things spooky, gross and disturbing, we’ve compiled a list of some of the creepiest creatures to be found in the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

To kick things off, we dip our toe into the salty waters of the Salish sea, where UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) are situated. These labs make the ideal setting to study the marine world, and provided us with no shortage of horrors to include in this list.

Basket star

Vampires, beware! This incredible creature has no blood, instead achieving gas exchange via its water vascular system.

Rat-tailed maggot

No, that’s not snot. These creatures are able to survive even in the dirtiest environments, such as sewage lagoons or cesspools. You might recognize the name after extensive press coverage in 2017 when they were discovered in the composting toilets at the Glastonbury Festival. Lovely!

Gonionemus jelly

While she was on a dive to collect seagrass at FHL, PhD candidate Olivia Graham encountered an array of glorious sea creatures, including the Gonionemus jelly, which is stunning in every sense of the word. Though it may look cool (and somewhat menacing), you’re best keeping your distance, as the Gonionemus jelly has an exceptionally dangerous sting. In addition to the common symptoms of a painful jellyfish sting, the Gonionemus also causes numbness, pain in the arm and leg joints, difficulty breathing and possible liver malfunction.

Now it’s time to break out the microscope to peer into the (secret) spooky lives of some of the organisms that are studied by the scientists in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Come on down, parasites!

Toxoplasma gondii

Roughly 40 percent of North Americans carry the toxoplasma gondii parasite, which can lead to the infectious disease toxoplasmosis and cause personality changes in their human hosts. Terrifying! Infected people are also three times more likely to get into car accidents. Beware all cat owners and lovers of raw meat — you are especially vulnerable to infection.

Cymothoidae

This little monster is less of a threat to humans, but we don’t think it’s too popular among our fishy friends. Meet Cymothoidae, a parasite found in marine and freshwater environments. This crustacean eats its host fish’s tongue, causing it to atrophy. Once the tongue is gone, the parasite lays down inside its mouth and pretends to be a tongue. Not cool, dude.

Finally, allow us to introduce you to a nightmare for oyster farmers, courtesy of our colleagues at Washington Sea Grant.

Ghost shrimp

It may not look particularly menacing, but the ghost shrimp’s impacts on the environment can be terrifying. In large numbers, ghost shrimp churn up sediment to feed on algae and microbes. In the case of shellfish farms, this leads to mud beds softening, and causes shellfish growing on the estuaries to sink and suffocate. Here in Washington state, Washington Sea Grant is working with tideland managers, shellfish growers and regulators in Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay to find ways to manage these creepy critters.

What would you add to this list? Tweet us @uwenvironment with your creepiest, grossest or most wacky creatures this Halloween!

Oct 4, 2019

Awards and Honors

Abigail Swann included in Science News 10: Scientists to watch

The University of Washington Department of Atmospheric Sciences‘ Abigail Swann was honored in the SN 10, Science News’ list of 10 early- and mid-career scientists on their way to greater widespread acclaim.

Each scientist on the list was nominated by a Nobel laureate, recently elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, or a scientist previously named to the list. All are age 40 or under, and were selected by Science News staff for their potential to shape the science of the future.

Swann is an atmospheric scientist and ecologist who is interested in the transitions, thresholds, and feedbacks of the coupled ecosystem-climate system, or ecoclimate. She works to understand when, where, and how plants influence the climate across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Her theoretical interests lead her to such questions as: how will changes in agricultural area create feedbacks in climate? Or, what processes control the response of climate to vegetation in different regions of the world? As such, her work is global in scale, considering the interactions between terrestrial ecosystems not only on their local environment, but also on other regions connected to the local ecosystem through atmospheric circulation.

“I am, of course, honored to have been chosen,” Swann said. “In particular it is humbling to be chosen for a broad award such as this one, which is not specific to a single scientific discipline.”

Swann was also named the inaugural winner of the $1,000 Jon C. Graff, Ph.D. Prize for Excellence in Science Communications. She was selected “for her mastery of conveying complex ideas with clarity.” The selection committee also considered “the scientists’ use of media, acknowledgement of scientific research as iterative and ability to communicate the long-term value of their work.”

Read about all the 2019 SN 10 winners who were announced Oct. 2.

Oct 25, 2019

Summer round-up at UW Environment

Just because campus is quieter over the summer, doesn’t mean College of the Environment researchers are on vacation. From the tea plantations of Taiwan to the coral reefs of Australia to the glaciers of Greenland, UW Environment students and researchers had a busy summer deepening their understanding of the world around us both inside and outside of the classroom. Here are some examples of work done by researchers from various units, schools and departments within the College:

Exploring environmental and social resilience in Taiwan

13 students spent four weeks exploring environmental and social resilience in Taiwan on a Program on the Environment study abroad trip. This trip was a collaboration between the College and four different Taiwanese universities: National Taiwan University, National Changhua University of Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University and National Pingtung University. Students had hands-on learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom, including academic lectures, field trips visiting with local environmental groups, weeding in an organic tea plantation, and observing organisms in an intertidal zone facing pressure from wind farm development.

View this post on Instagram

We recently welcomed back students studying abroad in Taiwan through @uwpoe! They heard from local environmental groups, weeded in an organic tea plantation, observed organisms in an intertidal zone, heard stories from the Hakka community and more. Hope you all learned a ton and had some time to explore!

A post shared by UW College of the Environment (@uwenvironment) on Aug 6, 2019 at 3:25pm PDT

Engineers and scientists study seagrass in Australia

Students carrying the UAV in Moreton Bay Research Station.

In conjunction with the UW Louis Stokes STEM Pathways and Research Alliance: Pacific Northwest (LSAMP) program, two researchers from the School of Oceanography led a group of 13 student scientists and engineers in a study abroad program in Queensland, Australia. At the Queensland University of Technology, students studied why seagrass and coral reef ecosystems are important, how to measure changes within these ecosystems and how to use robots to collect data. The class was co-taught by research engineer Rick Rupan and graduate student Isaiah Bolden, who formed an engineer/scientist team to expose students to real-world problem-solving and promote diversity of thought. The two led by example, showing students how engineering and science can work together to solve problems. Read the full story here.

Researching marine debris in Japan

School of Marine and Environmental Affairs graduate student Koarin Otsuka traveled to Mitakojima, Japan to conduct research for her thesis. There, she interviewed locals on how interactions between civil society and the municipal government affect how people on the island regard and respond to marine debris.

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Here is what SMEA student Karin Otsuka has been researching for her thesis! “I just returned from a month in Miyakojima, Japan, conducting interviews with local residents on how interactions between civil society and the municipal government affect how people on the island regard and respond to marine debris. I had the incredible support of city officials, fishery associations, school principals, NPOs, and others not directly involved in marine-related work/outreach. Pictured is one of my interviewees (right) who invited me to help clean a beach he frequents.” #SMEAatUW • • • • @uofwa @uwenvironment #gradstudent #marinedebris #beachcleanup #plasticfree

A post shared by UW SMEA (@uw_smea) on Aug 12, 2019 at 11:02am PDT

Studying wildfires west of the Cascades

Eight students in Assistant Professor Brian Harvey’s lab at the School of Environmental and Forestry Sciences headed to the west side of the Cascades to study wildfires, specifically in forests burned in the 2017 Norse Peak wildfire. The group of three graduate and five undergraduate students had a rare opportunity to study forests affected by fires west of the Cascades, and the chance to work in collaboration with the US Department of Natural Resources, US Forest Service and SEFS Professor Emeritus Jerry Franklin.

The team collected data measuring how the fire burned, the severity of fire on burned trees, ground cover and number of trees that died from the fire. The team also measured initial vegetation after the fire, including tree seedlings and many other species of plants that have come back in the first two post-fire years. In addition to using these measurements as data for current analyses, the plots are set up to be permanent and long-term to track data over the next several decades and beyond. Read more about Harvey’s wildfire research at his website.

#HarveyLab @UW_SEFS @UWEnvironment field crew measuring burn severity and pre-/post-fire forests in the 2017 #NorsePeak #wildfire on the west side of the cascades. Stay tuned for insights on #westsidefire from several projects with us and @CIG_UW + @waDNR + USFS collaborators. pic.twitter.com/a0AVJKAojY

— Brian J Harvey (@Brian_J_Harvey) August 8, 2019

From fires to ice

They’re the unicorns of the sea! School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences‘ Associate Professor Kristin Laidre, SAFS graduate student Jenny Stern and Kate Stafford of the Applied Physics Lab worked on an interdisciplinary cruise in northwest Greenland, studying narwhals at glacier fronts in Melville Bay. As part of a three-year research effort, Laidre deployed underwater moorings at three sites and remote cameras on land, and worked with oceanographers to collect CTDs (an oceanography instrument measuring conductivity, temperature and depth in seawater) in the area.

Headed up to NW Greenland this week to study narwhals at glacier fronts in Melville Bay, just in time for the big melt event. pic.twitter.com/OsR2HGRNRn

— Kristin Laidre (@KristinLaidre) July 29, 2019

These are just a snapshot into all the great research done around the College of the Environment. For consideration in future news stories, please email coenvcom@uw.edu.

Oct 11, 2019

Awards and Honors

Maria Blancas wins $100,000 Bullitt prize

The Bullitt Foundation announced School of Environmental and Forest Sciences PhD student Maria Blancas as the winner of the 13^th annual Bullitt Environmental Prize, which recognizes young people from varied backgrounds who have overcome adversity and demonstrated the ability to become powerful environmental leaders. The goal of the program is to help broaden and diversify the leadership of the global environmental movement.

Blancas focuses her research on cumulative social and environmental impacts to farmworkers in Skagit and Whatcom Counties.

“Agricultural produce touches everyone through the food we eat, yet too often we forget the people working to bring it to our tables,” said Denis Hayes, CEO of the Bullitt Foundation. “Maria’s work gives voice to people who are frequently hidden from view, highlighting impacts to their health and bringing their needs out of the shadows,” he added.

The Bullitt Environmental Prize comes with $100,000 awarded over two years. Blancas plans to use these resources to complete her PhD, creating a digital platform for storytelling about farmworker experiences in the region.

Previous winners included SEFS PhD student Carol Bogezi, whose research was focused on reducing conflict between people and wildlife in the fast-growing Puget Sound region.