When the University of Washington launched its Alaska Salmon Program 66 years ago, researchers were tasked with determining why Alaska’s sockeye salmon catches had declined by over 50% in just 20 years: from 22 million fish per year to 10 million. At that time the fundamental biology of salmon was poorly known and there were no long-term studies integrating salmon and their ecosystems in a holistic manner, SAFS‘ Thomas Quinn wrote in a history of the program and the five field camps UW established. 

University of Washington has a thriving student farm, a growing number of LEED buildings, and an extremely supportive bike-commuting program. And it’s been recognized for these efforts and more, repeatedly. The latest: UW makes #4 on Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools”, and it is included in the Princeton Reviews’ “Green Honor Roll”. Read up about UW’s latest efforts! 

A group of researchers, including ATMO‘s Rob Wood, have published a comprehensive paper on marine cloud brightening, to shed light on what we do and don’t know about this geoengineering possibility. They argue that we can, and should, gather more information about marine cloud brightening as a way to slow global warming, including performing small-scale experiments. Read more about Rob’s paper here! 

Have you heard about the awesome ways in which people can get involved in scientific research? Projects like Fold.it, COASST and Whale.fm are only a few of the examples of the burgeoning opportunities under the term “public participation in scientific research” (or PPSR or citizen science). A conference devoted to this topic took place in Portland at the beginning of the month and it was a huge success. 

The “Early Career Ecologists” blog is hosted and written by a collaborative group of early-career scientists. Contributors work in a variety of systems (forests, riparian areas, deserts, the arctic tundra) and study a variety of species (from pines to microbes) all across the globe (from Alaska to Antarctica). They hope to encourage enthusiasm for and understanding of our systems beyond our own tiny, academic circles.