Oct 21, 2015

Natural Hazards and Resilient Communities: Q&A with UW’s Kate Starbird

From city to city and across continents, barriers to communication are fewer than ever before. In an increasingly connected world, where the 24-hour news cycle reigns and a billion people are on Facebook, people have grown accustomed to instant, accessible information that spans the globe. Kate Starbird, assistant professor at the UW’s College of Engineering, is exploring a new type of “digital volunteerism” that leverages social media as an online meeting place during crises.

UW study: Will Puget Sound’s population spike under climate change?

What began as mere speculation has started to take a more serious turn. Climate change is now implicated in flooding, droughts, heat waves and other catastrophes that computer models predict will become more common. Suddenly, a region long mocked for its gloomy weather seems like it could be a welcome refuge from a hot, dry future. A UW graduate student recently took an in-depth look at the issue, which would have implications for the region’s long-term water supplies, transportation and other infrastructure.

UW's Alaska Salmon Program: A Living Laboratory

Sarah Schooler walks up one of Lake Aleknagik's many streams, counting and tagging sockeye salmon.

Sarah Schooler spent her summer in the Alaskan bush, collecting data on salmon and the habits of hungry grizzly bears with the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Bubble plumes off Washington, Oregon suggest warmer ocean releases frozen methane

Sonar image of bubbles rising from the seafloor off the Washington coast. The base of the column is 1/3 of a mile (515 meters) deep and the top of the plume is at 1/10 of a mile (180 meters) depth.

Warming ocean temperatures a third of a mile below the surface, in a dark ocean in areas with little marine life, might attract scant attention. But this is precisely the depth where frozen pockets of methane ‘ice’ transition from a dormant solid to a powerful greenhouse gas. New University of Washington research, whose lead author is UW professor of oceanography H.

New fact-check on fisheries reporting takes to Web, social media

An international team of experts in fisheries management, spearheaded by UW professor Ray Hilborn from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, is trying to lead the conversation about sustainable fisheries using a less traditional approach—reaching the general public directly through a new website and social media outreach. The initiative is called the Collaborative for Food from Our Oceans Data, or “CFOOD” for short, and offers data and commentary on the sustainability of global fisheries.