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Washington leads: connecting ocean acidification research to people who need it most

Oysters at Taylor Shellfish Farm

At the helm of EarthLab’s Washington Ocean Acidification Center are two experienced ocean scientists, but what they are trying to do is something entirely new. Terrie Klinger and Jan Newton are Salish Sea experts — one an ecologist, one an oceanographer — and they are addressing one of the biggest emerging threats to our environment today, ocean acidification. “When we first were funded by the legislature to stand up the Washington Ocean Acidification Center, there was no precedent. 

Read more at UW EarthLab »

UW atmospheric scientists to study most extreme storms on Earth, up close

Two University of Washington atmospheric scientists—Angela Rowe and Lynn McMurdie—are leaving for a weeks-long, firsthand study of some of the fiercest storms on the planet. They will participate in RELAMPAGO, an international campaign in Argentina to monitor storms that occur east of the Andes near the slopes of another mountain range, the Sierra de Córdoba. The international team hopes to better understand how convective storm systems — the big systems that unleash torrential rains, hail and lightning — initiate and grow as they travel from the mountainous terrain eastward over the plains. 

Read more at UW Today »

Shift in large-scale Atlantic circulation causes lower-oxygen water to invade Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence

Ocean Wave

The Gulf of St. Lawrence has warmed and lost oxygen faster than almost anywhere else in the global oceans. The broad, biologically rich waterway in Eastern Canada drains North America’s Great Lakes and is popular with fishing boats, whales and tourists. A new study led by the University of Washington looks at the causes of this rapid deoxygenation and links it to two of the ocean’s most powerful currents: the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. 

Read more at UW Today »

Study shows why eastern U.S. air pollution levels are more stagnant in winter

Particulate haze over eastern Pennsylvania in winter, as seen from the WINTER campaign aircraft.

The air in the United States is much cleaner than even a decade ago. But those improvements have come mainly in summer, the season that used to be the poster child for haze-containing particles that cause asthma, lung cancer and other illnesses. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and led by the University of Washington explains why winter air pollution levels have remained high, despite overall lower levels of harmful emissions from power plants and vehicles throughout the year. 

Read more at UW Today »