Natural history museums have entered a new stage of discovery and accessibility — one where scientists around the globe and curious folks at home can access valuable museum specimens to study, learn or just be amazed. This new era follows the completion of openVertebrate, or oVert, a five-year collaborative project among 18 institutions, including the UW, to create 3D reconstructions of vertebrate specimens and make them freely available online.
From new discoveries in our solar system to insights about how predators and prey interact with humans, 2023 was another impressive year of research in the College of the Environment. Our students tackled new challenges, and we celebrated anniversaries, new honors, new leadership positions and more.
How much can you really learn from a dead herring in a jar?
Housed in the UW College of the Environment, the Burke Museum’s Ichthyology Collection is home to more than 13 million preserved fish specimens from around the world, many dating back over a century. By far the largest collection of its kind in North America, it includes over 300 different samples of Pacific herring — an ideal species for researchers aiming to look back in time.
Whether you live in a rural community that grapples with annual threats of destructive wildfires or in a city that now spends part of every summer inundated with smoke, many across North America have found themselves wondering: what happened to cause such a sudden change in the way our forests burn?
We sat down with Brian Harvey, assistant professor of environmental and forest sciences in the UW College of the Environment, to discuss some of the most frequently asked questions we encounter about the causes of wildfires, how they’re changing and what we can do to limit their impacts on human health and property.
Shuyi Chen, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences, was traveling to a conference in Boston as Hurricane Ian approached the Gulf of Mexico. During breaks at the conference, she provided her thoughts on the closely watched catastrophic storm system that made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28.
Q: What are your thoughts on Hurricane Ian? How does it compare to other storms?
The opportunity is now to renovate this nearly 100-year-old UW landmark to foster environmental leadership and learning, and unleash scientific innovation to better understand and manage our world’s natural resources, near and far.
A landmark and a legacy
Anderson Hall is the hub for the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, and plays a central role in addressing 21st-century problems facing our planet and species — yet it functions nearly the same as it did a century ago.
In 2017, nearly half the population of Umtanum Desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium) was destroyed by a wildfire in Washington’s Hanford Reach National Monument. This unassuming perennial plant is not found anywhere else in the world — meaning catastrophic events such as this could eventually spell extinction for its corner of Washington’s rich biodiversity.
How do we protect rare, endemic plants as they come under increasing pressure from intensifying wildfires and habitat disruption?
Citizen scientists recorded trash on Pacific Northwest beaches, from southern Oregon to Anacortes, Washington, to contribute to the growing study of marine trash. A study by the University of Washington analyzed 843 beach surveys and found that certain beaches, and certain areas of a single beach, are “sticky zones” that accumulate litter.
The study was published online Aug. 11 in Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Two University of Washington professors have been honored by the Ecological Society of America for their knowledge and contributions to the field of ecology.
Julian Olden, a professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, has been named a 2022 fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Fellows are elected for life, and the honor recognizes scientists who advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, government, nonprofits and the broader society.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the ice cover around Antarctica gradually expands from March to October each year. During this time the total ice area increases by 6 times to become larger than Russia. The sea ice then retreats at a faster pace, most dramatically around December, when Antarctica experiences constant daylight.
New research led by the University of Washington explains why the ice retreats so quickly: Unlike other aspects of its behavior, Antarctic sea ice is just following simple rules of physics.
Becky Alexander has agreed to be reappointed as director of the Program on Climate Change (PCC), effective Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2025. Alexander is expecting to take a one-year sabbatical for AY22-23, so LuAnne Thompson will be serving as acting director, effective Sept. 1, 2022 to Aug. 31, 2023.
Alexander is an atmospheric chemist in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences who studies the feedbacks that arise between climate change and the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
Across the globe, endangered species are at risk for illegal poaching. African elephants are sought out for their ivory, rhinoceros for their singular horns, and armadillo-like pangolins for their protective, brittle scales. Add to that list valuable and environmentally sensitive trees illegally harvested throughout the world where entire ecosystems are being deforested and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that is devastating oceans.
In an age of rapidly advancing technology, humans are fascinated with AI, which is shorthand for artificial intelligence. Many movies and TV shows feature this techno-wizardry, whether it’s AI beings starring in our favorite Marvel movies or the creation of deeply imaginative worlds that depict post-apocalyptic robot takeovers. The idea of deep learning machines is one we often think about in fictional contexts, but at the University of Washington researchers are looking at practical, real-world applications.
Lightning is one of the most destructive forces of nature, as in 2020 when it sparked the massive California Lightning Complex fires, but it remains hard to predict. A new study led by the University of Washington shows that machine learning — computer algorithms that improve themselves without direct programming by humans — can be used to improve lightning forecasts.
Better lightning forecasts could help to prepare for potential wildfires, improve safety warnings for lightning and create more accurate long-range climate models.
When the next major earthquake hits the Pacific Northwest, a system launched last spring should give some advance warning, as emergency alerts go out and cell phones buzz. But how well the system functions might depend on whether that quake is the so-called “really big one,” and where it starts.
The Pacific Northwest’s last magnitude-9 event from the offshore subduction zone was in 1700.