It was three, maybe four o’clock in the morning when he first saw them. Grad student Jeff Bowman was on the deck of a ship; he and a University of Washington biology team were on their way back from the North Pole. It was cold outside, the temperature had just dropped, and as the dawn broke, he could see a few, then more, then even more of these little flowery things, growing on the frozen sea.
Read more »Massive dock washes ashore on Olympic National Park beach - CNN
A massive dock, possibly debris from the March 2011 tsunami that struck Japan, has washed ashore in Washington state’s Olympic National Park – read more.
Read more »Scientists See Big Impacts on U.S. Ecosystems from Global Warming - NYT Dot Earth
A new analysis by dozens of scientists – including some from UW – provides a useful update on measured and anticipated impacts of human-driven climate change on ecosystems from western forests to coastal waters. The report, “Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services,” is one of a suite of studies feeding into what will be the third National Climate Assessment, an overarching analysis of impacts on everything from transportation systems to public health.
Read more »French Polynesia and Cook Islands create sanctuaries to protect sharks - WaPo
French Polynesia and the Cook Islands this month created adjacent shark sanctuaries spanning 2.5 million square miles of ocean, a move that reflects a growing trend to protect sharks worldwide and more than doubles the area now off-limits to any shark fishing. Read more about what this means and why its important for ocean ecosystems.
Read more »Plumes across the Pacific deliver thousands of microbial species to West Coast - UW Today
A surprising number of microorganisms – 99 percent more kinds than had been reported in findings published just four months ago – are leaping the biggest gap on the planet. Hitching rides in the upper troposphere, they’re making their way from Asia across the Pacific Ocean and landing in North America. Read more about this research and its implications for aerobiology.
Read more »