Just because campus is quieter over the summer, doesn’t mean College of the Environment researchers are on vacation. From the tea plantations of Taiwan to the coral reefs of Australia to the glaciers of Greenland, UW Environment students and researchers had a busy summer deepening their understanding of the world around us both inside and outside of the classroom. Here are some examples of work done by researchers from various units, schools and departments within the College:
Exploring environmental and social resilience in Taiwan
13 students spent four weeks exploring environmental and social resilience in Taiwan on a Program on the Environment study abroad trip.
Terryl Ross, assistant dean of diversity, equity and inclusion at the College of the Environment was awarded the University of Washington Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) Distinguished Alumni Award on Sat., Oct. 19 at the 25th annual UW Alumni Association MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast. MAP has worked to connect the region’s diverse communities, promote equity at the UW and celebrate the achievements of distinguished alumni and accomplished students.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Sarah Converse who received the Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award in Washington D.C. on September 12th. The award is the highest honorary recognition an employee can receive within the Department of the Interior and is granted for “outstanding contribution to science, outstanding skill or ability in the performance of duty, outstanding contribution made during an eminent career in the Department, or any other exceptional contribution to the public service.”
The Southwest has always faced periods of drought. Most recently, from late 2011 to 2017, California experienced years of lower-than-normal rainfall.
El Niño is known to influence rain in the Southwest, but it’s not a perfect match. New research from the University of Washington and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution explores what conditions in the ocean and in the atmosphere prolong droughts in the Southwestern U.S.
Associate Professor Laura Prugh of the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences received the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early career scientists and engineers.
This award is bestowed to outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers and who show exceptional promise for leadership in science and technology, according to the White House.
The winter ice on the surface of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea occasionally forms an enormous hole. A hole that appeared in 2016 and 2017 drew intense curiosity from scientists and reporters. Though even bigger gaps had formed decades before, this was the first time oceanographers had a chance to truly monitor the unexpected gap in Antarctic winter sea ice.
A new study led by researchers in the UW School of Oceanography combines satellite images of the sea ice cover, robotic drifters and even seals outfitted with sensors to better understand the phenomenon.
Wildfire season is already upon us. In 2018, roughly 1700 fires occurred in Washington, burning 500,000 acres of forested land and immediately affecting thousands of people in rural communities. Wildfires have a larger, regional impact too – long term exposure to smoke can increase the risk of heart and lung disease, as well as increase sensitivity to asthma.
So what’s in store for Washington this year as the 2019 wildfire season gets underway?
Along the Mekong River in Cambodia, UW researchers are racing to determine how hydropower demand will impact the supplies of rice and fish — and the communities who rely on them.
Abigail Swann, an associate professor in both the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Biology has been named an Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA).
Swann was elected for her impact advancing understanding of linkages between vegetation change and the atmosphere via “ecoclimate teleconnections,” including an understanding of the climate impacts of plant distributions and plant functioning, and of the processes responsible for plant-climate interactions.
The University of Washington and the College of the Environment are committed to promoting an inclusive environment where people from all backgrounds feel welcome. This is a list of resources that might help navigate the UW system.
Diversity and inclusion
UW President Ana Mari Cauce launched a Race and Equity Initiative in spring 2015 with a challenge that all UW members take personal responsibility for addressing our own biases and improving our university culture.
On this page, you will find a list of resources you might find helpful for your own reading or to share with your colleagues and students.
Recommended reading for equity through UW Libraries
The Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, in collaboration with librarian Emily Keller and Maureen Nolan, have developed a new online Environmental Justice research guide, available through the UW Libraries website.
The UW College of the Environment actively partners with members of the communities across the Puget Sound area and the state of Washington to support diversity and inclusion. The following resources have been selected to inform, bring awareness and promote mindful forms of engagement. Consider that the views, opinions, and conclusions expressed in the following external resources are those of the author(s) or organization(s) and not necessarily those of the University of Washington.
Around the planet’s oceans, nearly 4,000 floats — many of them built at the University of Washington — are plunging up and down, collecting and transmitting observations of the world’s oceans.
This fall, one of these diving robots made the program’s 2 millionth measurement, reporting temperature and salinity recorded to a depth of about a mile.
The Argo Program is a 20-year-old project to gather 3D data on the oceans.
UW College of the Environment and Seattle visual analytics company Tableau Software teamed up to create a new, interactive visualization for historical observations of temperature and precipitation in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana, and for Washington snowpack. The free online tool lets anybody interact with the records going back as far as 1881 and look for significant trends.
“This tool lets anyone, from researchers to meteorologists to members of the public, look at the actual data to motivate why we should care about our climate changing, and see how it is changing in our own backyard,” said project lead Karin Bumbaco, the assistant state climatologist for Washington.
Not all polar bears are in the same dire situation due to retreating sea ice, at least not right now. Off the western coast of Alaska, the Chukchi Sea is rich in marine life, but the number of polar bears in the area had never been counted. The first formal study of this population suggests that it’s been healthy and relatively abundant in recent years, numbering about 3,000 animals.