Marine scientists from UW and other organizations launch a global agenda to curb social and human rights abuses in the seafood industry.
Read more at UW Today »Large-scale experiment on the rural Olympic Peninsula to test innovations in forest management
Before humans intervened in forest ecosystems, disturbances such as fire, wind storms and diseases wracked segments of the landscape, killing off swathes of trees and providing spaces for regrowth. Today, forest conditions are largely constrained by logging and conservation strategies, but scientists are recognizing the ecological and community benefits of letting a forest behave in more natural patterns. Scientists at the University of Washington and the state Department of Natural Resources intend to test a management approach that mimics natural disturbance patterns and processes across a portion of the Olympic Peninsula, an area known for having the most rainfall in the lower 48 states, high tree-growth rates and old-growth forests, part of which remain today.
Read more at UW Today »UW's Kristin Laidre awarded Pew marine fellowship to study effects of climate change, subsistence hunting on polar bears
Polar bears depend on sea ice for essential tasks like hunting and breeding. As Arctic sea ice disappears due to climate change, bears across the species’ 19 subpopulations are feeling the strain. But even as scientists try to quantify just how much melting sea ice is affecting polar bears, another group that depends on the iconic mammal for subsistence also is at risk of losing an important nutritional and economic resource.
Read more at UW Today »Diversification key to resilient fishing communities
Fishing communities can survive ― and even thrive ― as fish abundance and market prices shift if they can catch a variety of species and nimbly move from one fishery to the next. These findings, published Jan. 16 in Nature Communications, draw upon 34 years of data collected in more than 100 fishing communities in Alaska that depend on fishing for livelihoods, cultural traditions and daily subsistence.
Read more at UW Today »UW-led study shows global evidence of the role of humans, urbanization in rapid evolution
It has long been suspected that humans and the urban areas we create are having an important — and surprisingly current and ongoing — effect on evolution, which may have significant implications for the sustainability of global ecosystems. A new multi-institution study led by the University of Washington that examines 1,600 global instances of phenotypic change — alterations to species’ observable traits such as size, development or behavior — shows more clearly than ever that urbanization is affecting the genetic makeup of species that are crucial to ecosystem health and success.
Read more at UW Today »