A team of researchers has found that otters’ love of sea urchins leads to 12 times greater CO2 sequestration by kelp than if otters aren’t around. Learn more about how this is possible, and why the effects of animals on the CO2 cycle is ripe for exploration. SAFS‘ Kristin Laidre is a co-author of this new study, to be published in October.
Read more »UW leads effort to monitor the ocean - Seattle Times
Scientists from OCEAN, and other collaborators, spent much of this summer laying down “nodes” on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, off the Pacific Northwest coast. Their goal? To monitor events in the ocean in real time, and to allow anyone else who wants it to access the same data. Pretty ambitious! Learn more from this story, where John Delaney and Deb Kelley are quoted, and check out the OOI site here.
Read more »Crows, like humans, remember faces and associate them with feelings - UW News
New research from SEFS‘ John Marzluff and collaborators from UW’s Department of Radiology shows how crows feel about people–literally. The team scanned the brains of captured wild crows as they were exposed to “threatening” and “care-taking” faces. These scans reveal similar responses in the crows, with different areas of the brain lighting up for feared than trusted faces, as in humans.
Read more »Next generation of climate models needed - e! Science News
The United States’ collection of climate models should advance substantially to deliver more detailed, smaller scale climate projections, says a new report from the National Research Council. Committee chair Chris Bretherton, ATMO professor, is quoted. Read more here!
Read more »Arctic tipping point envisioned as extent, volume drop to record lows - Yale e360
This year, two milestones have been reached in the Arctic Ocean — record-low sea ice extent, and an even more dramatic new low in Arctic sea ice volume. What might this mean for the future of Arctic ice, and its effects on the globe? UW’s PIOMAS model is cited; read more here.
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