Jan 15, 2016

UW students return from Paris climate talks, advocate for stronger youth voice

Empowered by their experience abroad, a group of College of the Environment students are working toward more youth engagement in global conversations about the planet.

Fewer than 1 in 25 Seattleites can really eat locally

How many of Seattle’s residents could live off food grown in their city? If abundant P-Patches and backyard gardens teeming with kale come to mind, you’re like many residents who assume urban agriculture in Seattle could support 50, 80, or even 100 percent of the people who live in the city. It turns out that the actual number is drastically lower.

Scientists solve long-standing ecological riddle

The fundamental mechanisms underlying global productivity-diversity patterns have been debated by ecologists for decades. Methodological advances are now permitting a glimpse at the processes that lie behind surface patterns.

Researchers have found clear evidence that communities rich in species are substantially healthier and more productive than those depleted of species, once complicating factors are removed. An international group of scientists, including University of Washington ecologist Jonathan Bakker in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences has solved this long-standing ecological riddle using new scientific techniques for analyzing complex data to answer the question: How do we know that conserving biodiversity is actually important in the real world?

Ocean observatory comes alive

This month, researchers from across the globe gain unprecedented access to data from the U.S. Regional Cabled Ocean Observatory.

Northwest winter weather: El Niño, coastal effects, no more 'blob'

A U.S. projection for trends in precipitation (left) and temperature (right) during the first three months of 2016. Washington state is expected to be drier (brown) and warmer (red) than usual, in this Dec. 17 seasonal forecast.

What some have called the “Godzilla El Niño” is now lumbering ashore, right on schedule. El Niño tends to influence North American weather after the first of January, and indeed, we’re seeing warm temperatures in Alaska and much-needed rain in California. University of Washington researchers are tracking what the season will deliver to the Pacific Northwest region. For Washington, El Niño typically brings warm, and often dry, winter weather.