Ship exhaust makes oceanic thunderstorms more intense
pxhere.com
Lightning near an aircraft carrier in the Strait of Malacca. New research finds lightning strokes occurred nearly twice as often directly above heavily-trafficked shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea year-round from 2005 through 2016.
Thunderstorms directly above two of the world’s busiest shipping lanes are significantly more powerful than storms in areas of the ocean where ships don’t travel, according to new research.
A new study mapping lightning around the globe finds lightning strikes occur nearly twice as often directly above heavily-trafficked shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea than they do in areas of the ocean adjacent to shipping lanes that have similar climates.
The difference in lightning activity can’t be explained by changes in the weather, according to the study’s authors, who conclude that aerosol particles emitted in ship exhaust are changing how storm clouds form over the ocean.
“It’s one of the clearest examples of how humans are actually changing the intensity of storm processes on Earth through the emission of particulates from combustion,” said Joel Thornton, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle and lead author of the new study in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Old fish few and far between under fishing pressure
Victoria O'Connell
A large, old yelloweye rockfish.
Like old-growth trees in a forest, old fish in the ocean play important roles in the diversity and stability of marine ecosystems. Critically, the longer a fish is allowed to live, the more likely it is to successfully reproduce over the course of its lifetime, which is particularly important in variable environmental conditions.
A new study by University of Washington scientists has found that, for dozens of fish populations around the globe, old fish are greatly depleted — mainly because of fishing pressure. The paper, published online Sept. 14 in Current Biology, is the first to report that old fish are missing in many populations around the world.
Climate change challenges the survival of fish across the world
University of Washington
Fish species in many river systems will face the challenge of coping with warmer waters in the future (John Day River pictured).
Climate change will force many amphibians, mammals and birds to move to cooler areas outside their normal ranges, provided they can find space and a clear trajectory among our urban developments and growing cities.
But what chance do fish have to survive as climate change warms up waters around the world?
University of Washington researchers are tackling this question in the first analysis of how vulnerable the world’s freshwater and marine fishes are to climate change. Their paper, appearing online Sept. 11 in Nature Climate Change, used physiological data to predict how nearly 3,000 fish species living in oceans and rivers will respond to warming water temperatures in different regions.
“Climate change is happening. We need tools to try to identify areas that are going to be the most at risk and try to develop plans to conserve these areas,” said lead author Lise Comte, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “It’s important to look at the organisms themselves as we cannot just assume they will all be equally sensitive to these changes.”
Land-sea experiment will track earthquakes, volcanoes along Alaska Peninsula
Emily Roland, assistant professor in the School of Oceanography and one of nine principal investigators in the study
The National Science Foundation is funding the largest marine seismic-monitoring effort yet along the Alaska Peninsula, a region with frequent and diverse earthquake and volcanic activity. Involving aircraft and ships, the new Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment will be led by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with partners at the University of Washington and seven other research institutions.
“This effort will really change the information we have at our disposal for understanding the seismic properties of subduction zones,” said Emily Roland, a UW assistant professor of oceanography and one of nine principal investigators on the project.
The experiment will place seismic instruments on and off a 435-mile stretch of coast that includes the communities of Kodiak, King Salmon and Sand Point. The instruments will be deployed starting next spring and will record for 15 months, spanning two summer seasons.
The University of Washington is pleased to welcome Ben Packard as the Harriet Bullitt Endowed Executive Director of EarthLab. EarthLab is the UW-wide initiative that harnesses the power of collaboration to tackle thorny environmental challenges including climate change, ocean health, natural hazards and healthy ecosystems. Key to EarthLab’s success will be building relationships between the University and public, private and nonprofit sectors.
“I am excited about the ambition of EarthLab to be a catalyzing force outside of the UW, the openness to create a new model for change and the willingness to build something different on the strong foundation of work already happening at UW,” says Packard, who most recently served as global managing director of corporate engagement at The Nature Conservancy. “It’s an incredible opportunity.”
As the inaugural executive director, Packard will be responsible for determining the early success and impact of EarthLab, working strategically within and beyond the University to promote new learning and action to address environmental challenges. He will help build the relationships that enable EarthLab to bring the exceptional research and science at the University to bear on a range of environmental matters.
Before his tenure at The Nature Conservancy, Packard led the internationally recognized environmental sustainability efforts at Starbucks. His experience has allowed him to work across sectors, building new and often unexpected partnerships that lead to unique strategies for problem-solving. Packard has a track record of using innovative approaches to address complex environmental challenges and offer robust solutions.
“I was immediately thrilled to see Ben put his name forward,” says Lisa Graumlich, dean and Mary Laird Wood Professor at the College of the Environment. “When I think about the traits that will make the EarthLab director successful, they are numerous and not always found in the same person. Ben is that rare example of someone who can take his passion and build the right bridges to unlock innovative thinking around environmental solutions. He is just the person to launch this effort.”
Packard looks forward to joining with UW faculty, staff and students to come up with systemic solutions that demand deeper collaboration across sectors and disciplines than we even know today. Beyond that, he is eager to lead an endeavor that has not been tried before.
“I am very excited about what the UW can do to drive change in how we interact with our environment and build something that has lasting impact. The academic sector has a lot to offer in this realm,” Packard says.
Q&A: How Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Yellowstone National Park are confronting climate change
Jon Sullivan, PD Photo/Wikipedia
Grand Teton National Park, in western Wyoming, is included in the book’s focus area.
The Northern Rocky Mountain ecosystem includes huge swaths of federal lands, two national parks and some of the most spectacular wild spaces in the country. University of Washington researchers are helping managers of those lands prepare for a shifting climate.
The book brings together years of conversation about what resource managers are seeing — and doing — on the ground. While Halofsky and Peterson wrote the introduction, other chapters were written by scientists and resource managers who are members of the Northern Rockies Adaptation Partnership, a group of 35 organizations that the two UW environmental scientists co-lead.
Record-low 2016 Antarctic sea ice due to ‘perfect storm’ of tropical, polar conditions
NASA/Kathryn Hansen
“I’ve spent many years working on tropical climate and El Niño, and it amazes me to see its far-reaching impacts,” Stuecker said.
While winter sea ice in the Arctic is declining so dramatically that ships can now navigate those waters without any icebreaker escort, the scene in the Southern Hemisphere is much different. Sea ice around Antarctica has actually increased slightly during winter — until last year.
About a year ago, a dramatic drop in Antarctic sea ice during spring in the Southern Hemisphere brought its maximum area to its lowest level in 40 years of record keeping. Ocean temperatures were also unusually warm. This exceptional, sudden nosedive in Antarctica differs from the long-term decline in the Northern Hemisphere. A new UW study, published Aug. 24 in Geophysical Research Letters, shows that a lack of Antarctic sea ice in 2016 was in part due to a unique one-two punch from atmospheric conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean and around the South Pole.
“This combination of factors, all these things coming together in a single year, was basically the ‘perfect storm,’ for Antarctic sea ice,” said corresponding author Malte Stuecker, a UW postdoctoral researcher in atmospheric sciences. “While we expect a slow decline in the future from global warming, we don’t expect such a rapid decline in a single year to happen very often.”
