Daniel Schindler, a University of Washington fisheries ecologist who explores aquatic ecosystem dynamics, has been named the 2015 Frank Rigler Award recipient. The award is the highest honor given by the Society of Canadian Limnologists and recognizes major achievements in the field of limnology by Canadians or those working in Canada, the society says. Schindler, born in Ontario, holds dual U.S.
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Scientists using a microbe that occurs naturally in eastern cottonwood trees have boosted the ability of two other plants—willow and lawn grass—to withstand the withering effects of the nasty industrial pollutant phenanthrene and take up 25 to 40 percent more of the pollutant than untreated plants. The approach could avoid the regulatory hurdles imposed on transgenic plants—plants with genes inserted from or exchanged with other plant or animal species—that have shown promise in phytoremediation, the process of using plants to remove toxins from contaminated sites, according to Sharon Doty, associate professor of environmental and forestry sciences and corresponding author on a paper about the new work in Environmental Science & Technology.
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While we’ve heard the analogy that carbon dioxide is like a blanket—wrapping the Earth’s atmosphere and trapping heat—in the long run the “how” of global warming changes, according to new research by scientists here at UW and at MIT. As the planet’s ice melts, and its warmer air carries more water, it will absorb more solar radiation than would have otherwise bounced off of clouds, ice, or snow.
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Dean Lisa Graumlich and associate dean Julia Parrish are among several signatories from the College of the Environment and UW calling to increase the diversity of voices in how we practice conservation. Joining over 200 others, the authors of a new comment in Nature discuss how increasing diversity at the conservation table can help move us globally to a more “shared vision of a thriving planet.”
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Oceanography students in the College of the Environment scoured the bottom of Lake Union on a research cruise, testing out new high-tech equipment that allows users to peer through the lake’s deep waters. Students set sail on the Clifford A. Barnes, one of several ships and boats operated by the University of Washington. King 5 reporters joined the students for the excursion, capturing video of what they were up to and what they saw on the lake bottom.
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