In early August, biologist Peter Ward returned from the South Pacific with news that he had encountered an old friend, one he hadn’t seen in three decades. A professor with the College of the Environment’s Earth & Space Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences‘ Department of Biology, Ward had seen what he considers one of the world’s rarest animals: Allonautilus scrobiculatus.
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Transmission lines that funnel power from hydroelectric dams and wind turbines across Eastern Washington impact sage grouse habitat by isolating fragile populations and limiting movement, a new study by the College of the Environment’s Climate Impacts Group and others finds. The paper looks at how features in the landscape limit the species’ distribution and gene flow, and is the first to show that power-line corridors are an obstacle for sage grouse as they move across the landscape to feed and reproduce.
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After nearly 35 years, a color-changing fish known for its red “fingers” has a proper name. Scientists from the College of the Environment’s School of Aquatic & Fisheries Sciences announced the name of a new genus and species of frogfish, small, stocky creatures found in tropical and subtropical oceans. It was first seen and collected in Australia in 1980 by a University of Washington graduate student, but the sole specimen disappeared soon after, leaving researchers no option but to shelve the discovery.
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With two degrees under her belt and dissertation research to complete, Meryl Mims found herself in southeastern Arizona’s Sky Islands in the summer of 2013. In a landscape known for the juxtaposition of its sprawling features—where towering, forested mountains seep upward through the desert’s dry, cracked surface—a two-inch long frog captured Mims’ attention. “We were already out there and we were hearing the Arizona treefrogs.
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The Ocean Modeling Forum, a collaboration between the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and NOAA Fisheries, is attempting to bring together multiple science models and people who care about a particular ocean resource or fishery to decide what’s most important for its vitality and the communities it serves. The Forum will address ocean management issues, facilitating conversations among a multitude of stakeholders, and will focus their primary efforts on the Pacific herring fishery in the coming months.
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