At the Friday Harbor Laboratories, recovery is afoot. Scientists at this University of Washington facility in the San Juan Islands are working to help sunflower stars — a type of sea star — grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease. “They’re gone in a lot of places, and a lot of what we’re doing here is testing out ideas for reintroduction,” said Jason Hodin, a researcher at the lab.
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A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has discovered a major cause for a drop in nighttime pollinator activity — and people are largely to blame. Nighttime pollution creates a chain of chemical reactions that degrades scent cues, leaving flowers undetectable by smell.
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Friday Harbor Laboratories’ sunflower sea star rearing lab recently was featured on the NBC show “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild.” It's part of an episode on the plight of the Pacific Ocean’s kelp forests — and what’s being done to save them.
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Across the American West, managers of fire-prone landscapes are increasingly setting small fires to prevent larger, more destructive ones. Commonly called prescribed burns, these targeted, controlled fires keep forests healthy by reducing the buildup of grasses, leaves, branches and other debris that can fuel larger wildfires and smoke out nearby communities. But smoke from prescribed burns also presents health risks. Today’s forest managers must ask themselves — how much prescribed burning is too much?
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As climate change warms the planet, weather patterns are likely to shift. Even the consistency of snow — how fluffy it is, for example — could change. Researchers also want to know how these changing conditions will affect how predators hunt prey.
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