John E. Vidale, a University of Washington professor of Earth and space sciences, is among 84 new members and 21 foreign associates elected this week as members of the National Academy of Sciences. Academy members are recognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, according to a news release from the academy. Vidale studies Earth’s interior, including earthquakes and volcanoes.
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University of Washington geologist David R. Montgomery, a professor in the College’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences, writes that he never thought he’d write an optimistic book about the environment. Montgomery’s first popular book, “Dirt,” was about how erosion undermined ancient civilizations around the world in places like modern-day Syria and Iraq. Yet his latest book, “Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life,” is a good-news environment story.
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The mountain pine beetle has destroyed more than 40 million acres of forest in the western United States — an area roughly the size of Washington state. The beetles introduce a fungus that prevents water and critical nutrients from traveling within a tree. They also lay eggs under the conifers’ bark, and their feeding larvae help kill trees — sometimes just weeks after the initial attack.
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A new population of invasive European green crab has been found at Dungeness Spit, near Sequim, Washington, rekindling concern over the potential for damage to local marine life and shorelines. Staff and volunteers from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages Dungeness Spit National Wildlife Refuge, captured a total of 13 European green crab over the past two weeks as part of the UW-based Washington Sea Grant Crab Team early detection program.
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UW Environment Dean Lisa J. Graumlich reflects on the March for Science, calling for an adaptive management approach for addressing climate change.
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