An oasis for scholars: the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center

Sailing into Friday Harbor, you can’t miss the set of long, low-slung buildings along the water’s northern edge. They are home to the famed Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL), a research outpost housed within the larger University of Washington College of the Environment. The labs have operated over one hundred years, first gaining notoriety for their impact in evolutionary and neuroscience. Over the decades, the labs have added marine ecology, seawater chemistry, biomechanics and all flavors of oceanography to their research repertoire.

Record-high Arctic freshwater will flow through Canadian waters, affecting marine environment and Atlantic ocean currents

A simulated red dye tracer released from the Beaufort Gyre in the Artic Ocean shows freshwater transport through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, along Baffin Island to the western Labrador Sea, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, where it reduces surface salinity.

Freshwater is accumulating in the Arctic Ocean. The Beaufort Sea, which is the largest Arctic Ocean freshwater reservoir, has increased its freshwater content by 40% over the past two decades. How and where this water will flow into the Atlantic Ocean is important for local and global ocean conditions. A study from the University of Washington, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that this freshwater travels through the Canadian Archipelago to reach the Labrador Sea, rather than through the wider marine passageways that connect to seas in Northern Europe.

UW Oceanography's Jodi Young named Sloan Fellow

One faculty member at UW Environment was awarded an early-career fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellow, announced Feb. 16, is Jodi Young, an assistant professor in the School of Oceanography. Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics — the fellowships honor those early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.

Marine organisms use previously undiscovered receptors to detect, respond to light

Students with an oceanography instrument

Just as plants and animals on land are keenly attuned to the hours of sunlight in the day, life in the oceans follows the rhythms of the day, the seasons and even the moon. A University of Washington study finds the biological light switches that make this possible. Single-celled organisms in the open ocean use a diverse array of genetic tools to detect light, even in tiny amounts, and respond, according to a study published the week of Feb.

Marine-related Learning Networks’ role in ocean governance

Healthy ecosystems buzzing with life are more than something pretty to look at – they are critically important to our health and wellbeing. Ecosystems deliver goods and services that humans need – like fresh water, protection from the elements and food for our dinner tables – and it’s in our best interest to make sure they remain vibrant and thriving for future generations.