Laura Prugh/University of Washington

The Arctic’s dramatic changes — warmer winters, earlier springs, shrinking ice and more human development — are impacting native animals. Researchers have long been observing the movements and behavior of animals in this region, but it’s been difficult to discover and access these data for meaningful collaborations.

Now scientists from around the world have established the Arctic Animal Movement Archive, an online repository for data documenting the movements of animals in the Arctic and Subarctic. With this archive, scientists can share their knowledge and collaborate to ask questions about how animals are responding to a changing climate.

The global archive and several case studies on wildlife movement and behavior are described in a paper published Nov. 5 in Science.

“In terms of recent calls for more open science, platforms like this are a major leap forward in making valuable data discoverable and useful for researchers to address far more science questions than would otherwise be possible,” said project collaborator and co-author Laura Prugh, associate professor in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

One of the case studies, led by Prugh’s lab at the UW, looked at the movement speeds of bears, caribou, moose and wolves from 1998 to 2019 and found that all species changed their movement rates in response to climate conditions — but with no consistent pattern. This inconsistency shows that responses of large mammals to climate change in the Arctic may not be straightforward to predict.

“This work has highlighted strong changes in movement rates in response to climate, but the reasons why animals are moving more or less are still not understood,” Prugh said. “I hope the work spurs future research to understand the ‘why’ behind our findings, and whether these changes are indicative of positive or negative climate change impacts.”

Movement rates are important to track because they can influence how effective animals are at finding food and other resources, when animals encounter predators, and how much energy they expend during different seasons. Additionally, large mammals in the Arctic are adapted to cold conditions and may experience heat stress due to warming temperatures, the authors explained.

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Dennis Wise/University of Washington

The University of Washington is among leading U.S. oceanographic institutions that have received National Science Foundation funding to build and deploy 500 robotic ocean-monitoring floats to monitor the chemistry and biology of the world’s oceans.

The National Science Foundation on October 29 approved a $53 million, five-year grant to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI); the UW; Scripps Institution of Oceanography; the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and Princeton University. The consortium will build robotic ocean-monitoring floats to be distributed in oceans around the globe.

“This will be one of the largest awards that NSF has ever given in ocean sciences,” said Stephen Riser, a UW professor in the School of Oceanography. “It will allow us to create and deploy an ocean observing system that will operate for decades and will influence our ideas about the carbon cycle, in the same way that the basic Argo program has helped our understanding of the physics of ocean circulation.”

About $20.5 million of the award will go to the UW to build and deploy about 300 of the 500 floats, with another $3 million for maintenance. The UW team plans to begin construction in 2021 and hopes to put the first instruments in the water later that year.

The new instruments are similar to roughly 200 the UW team previously built to survey the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, though these won’t have under-ice capabilities.

“These observations will provide an unprecedented global view of ocean processes that determine carbon cycling, ocean acidification, deoxygenation and biological productivity — all of which have a critical impact on marine ecosystems and the climate of our planet,” said Alison Gray, a UW assistant professor of oceanography.

These data will allow scientists to pursue fundamental questions about ocean ecosystems, observe ecosystem health and productivity, and monitor the elemental cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in the ocean through all seasons of the year. Such essential data are needed to improve computer models of ocean fisheries and climate, and to monitor and forecast the effects of ocean warming and ocean acidification on sea life.

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Brett Palm/University of Washington

Wildfires burning in the West affect not only the areas burned, but the wider regions covered by smoke. Recent years have seen hazy skies and hazardous air quality become regular features of the late summer weather.

Many factors are causing Western wildfires to grow bigger and to generate larger, longer-lasting smoke plumes that can stretch across the continent. An analysis led by the University of Washington looks at the most detailed observations to date from the interiors of West Coast wildfire smoke plumes.

The multi-institutional team tracked and flew through wildfire plumes from the source to collect data on how the chemical composition of smoke changed over time. A resulting paper, published Nov. 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, shows that smoke forecasts may incorrectly predict the amount of particles in staler smoke.

The new results could significantly change the estimate for particles in staler smoke, which could be the difference between “moderate” and “unhealthy” air quality in regions downwind of the fire.

“Wildfires are getting larger and more frequent, and smoke is becoming a more important contributor to overall air pollution,” said lead author Joel Thornton, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences. “We really targeted the smoke plumes close to the source to try better understand what’s emitted and then how it can transform as it goes downwind.”

Knowing how newly generated wildfire smoke transitions to stale, dissipated smoke could lead to better forecasts for air quality. Communities can use those forecasts to prepare by moving outdoor activities inside or rescheduling in cases where the air will be unsafe to be outdoors, as well as limiting other polluting activities such as wood-burning fires.

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UW Environment held on to the No. 5 position in the highest-ranked Geosciences programs globally.

“We are proud to be consistently recognized for the excellence and impact of our scholarship,” UW President Ana Mari Cauce said.

The ranking methodology — which is based on Web of Science data and metrics provided by Clarivate Analytics InCites — weighs factors that measure a university’s global and regional research reputation and academic research performance. For the overall rankings, this includes bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration.

The overall Best Global Universities ranking, now in its sixth year, encompasses the top 1,500 institutions spread across 81 countries, up from 75 countries last year, according to a press release from U.S. News.

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Earlier this fall, the titles of some of UW Environment’s most beloved teachers changed overnight. On September 16th, the titles of eight instructors, which had previously ended with the word “lecturer,” now end with “teaching professor.” This shift in title, however, changed more than just their email signatures.

This transition builds on earlier efforts to provide more stability for teaching faculty, including a limit on the number of annual contracts allowed before a multi-year contract must be pursued. The title changes come along with potential increases in contract lengths (up to 10 years, depending on the position) and also gives lecturers the same voting rights as other members of the professoriate. In the UW’s shared governance model, faculty members vote on a number of important matters, including merit increases, new appointments and reappointments, and now teaching professors’ voices are included in these votes.

“The biggest thing for me is that you now feel like you’re a full part of the faculty,” said Earth and Space Sciences Teaching Professor Terry Swanson. “Before, during certain executive decisions, the lecturers would be asked to leave. Now we’ll be involved in all aspects of the hierarchy. This promotion makes me feel included in the faculty as a whole.”

When sharing the legislation, the Faculty Senate noted that the university has broadened the core faculty to include some specialized classes of faculty members — notably the research professors, who are hired and promoted on the basis of their research, and the lecturers, who are hired and promoted on the basis of their teaching. In their proposal, the Senate noted that “for nearly a decade, the Faculty Senate has been working to improve the working conditions of our teaching faculty. Now we believe it’s time to take another step in that direction, by retitling most of our full time lecturers with professorial ranks and titles.”

“This is another step toward equity, as teaching faculty are more likely to be women and people of color,” said Kristi Straus, Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Director of Program on the Environment. “This is an important way of signalling that the UW values the contributions we make to the University.” 

The eight UW Environment faculty with new Teaching Professor titles are:

José Guzmán, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Steven Walters, Associate Teaching Professor, Earth and Space Sciences
Kristi Straus, Associate Teaching Professor, Program on the Environment
P. Sean McDonald, Associate Teaching Professor, Program on the Environment
Terry Swanson, Teaching Professor, Earth and Space Sciences
Mikelle Nuwer, Associate Teaching Professor, Oceanography
Brian Collins, Associate Teaching Professor, Earth and Space Sciences
Kathy Troost, Associate Teaching Professor, Earth and Space Sciences

“The College is blessed with a number of brilliant teaching professors,” said Dean Lisa J. Graumlich. “It is more than appropriate that they carry the title of professor. It will provide many opportunities for them to be yet more engaged in the governance of the College — and I look forward to their participation.”

This group includes a UW Environment teaching award winner (Guzmán), and three University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Awards (Guzmán, Straus, Swanson). You can learn more about Straus’ Sustainable Choices class or Swanson’s Introduction to Geology & Societal Impacts class through the videos below.

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Congratulations to Associate Professor Kyle Armour, who was selected as a recipient of the 2020 James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for his outstanding scientific contributions.

The Macelwane Medal is given annually to three to five early career scientists in recognition of their significant contributions to Earth and space science. Nominees are selected for the medal based on their depth and breadth of research, impact, creativity as well as service, outreach, and diversity.

Armour is part of the College’s Future of Ice initiative, and holds a joint position in the School of Oceanography and Department of Atmospheric Sciences. His research focuses on understanding recent and future sea ice changes, polar oceanography, and global climate change. Recently, he has worked on a range of topics including an assessment of the reversibility of Arctic sea ice loss, the time-dependence of atmospheric feedbacks, and regional climate predictability.

“Receiving the Macelwane Medal is obviously an honor, but I don’t see it as an individual recognition,” said Armour. “Instead, it reflects the work of the many outstanding colleagues, postdocs, and students I’ve had the good fortune of collaborating with over the years. It also reflects the tremendous amount of support I’ve received here at UW — first as a graduate student and now as a faculty member — as well as during my postdoc at MIT.”

More information and the full list of recipients can be found on the AGU award recipients page.

More AGU news:

Charles Nittrouer, UW professor emeritus of oceanography, is president-elect of the Ocean Sciences division.

Dean Lisa J. Graumlich was elected president-elect of AGU.

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