It could have been mistaken for a foggy morning along the waterfront, but the occasional coughs and burning eyes among the crowd of 60 or so people gathered here last Wednesday told a different story. Like much of the Northwest, Tacoma was shrouded in a haze of smoke from a spate of forest fires giving […]
June 22, 2022
Magazine series looks at salmon returns in the Elwha River
It has been more than ten years since the first of the Elwha River’s two dams was breached, and scientists are gaining new perspectives on the resilience of that ecosystem and its species. The dramatic sight of a river suddenly running free, and the swift return of its salmon has captured the public’s imagination. But a key […]
May 24, 2022
New paper describes PSI’s support of ecosystem-based management
Right now, researchers across Puget Sound are carefully measuring the salinity and temperature of the water, searching for harmful algal blooms and studying the feeding patterns of endangered orcas. They are testing the effects of ocean acidification, counting rockfish and checking the health of our declining kelp forests. Their scope includes salmon genetics and invasive […]
February 15, 2022
Call for student science writers to report on SSEC 2022
The University of Washington Puget Sound Institute is sponsoring up to 10 student writers to report short (300-word) stories about science findings presented at the upcoming Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. The conference will be held online April 26-28. We are offering $200 per story and can cover conference registration costs. Successful writers will publish their work […]
January 30, 2022
A treasure trove of ‘big ideas’ for Puget Sound
A series of reports from the Puget Sound Institute will synthesize key findings from close to 100 projects funded over the past five years by the Environmental Protection Agency. Six years ago, the EPA authorized more than $20 million dollars for projects to protect, restore and study critical habitats like beaches and floodplains in Puget […]
December 17, 2021
Modeling “the blob” in the Salish Sea
In late 2013, a marine heatwave that scientists dubbed “the blob” began warming the ocean throughout the Northeast Pacific, causing temperatures to rise almost 3°C above normal. The disruption severely depressed salmon returns. Whales, sea lions and seabirds starved, and warm water creatures were suddenly being spotted off the coast of Alaska. In Puget Sound, temperatures also jumped, but the effects of the blob […]
December 14, 2021
Science during the year of Covid: The Puget Sound Marine Waters Overview
While Covid restrictions remain a part of everyday life, a lot has eased since the global quarantines of spring 2020. During that time, the coronavirus effectively shut down scientific fieldwork in Puget Sound, leaving huge gaps in data for most facets of the ecosystem, from orcas to eelgrass. Despite the lockdowns, a new report from […]
September 27, 2021
Conference highlights latest findings on toxic chemical in tires
The International Conference on Emerging Contaminants (EMCON), hosted virtually this month by the University of Washington, focused on newly identified threats from chemicals and microplastics in the environment. The conference provided an opportunity to hear the latest research on the discovery of a tire-related compound deadly to Puget Sound’s coho salmon. The cause of what scientists […]
July 30, 2021
New NSF grant supports toxics research
Researchers at our affiliate organization the Center for Urban Waters have received a $797,107 National Science Foundation grant for the purchase of new equipment to identify toxic contaminants in Puget Sound. Ed Kolodziej is the project’s principal investigator. Co-principal investigators include David Beck, Allison Gardell, Jessica Ray, and Andy James. The funds were awarded on […]
July 16, 2021
PSI Director Joel Baker elected to Washington State Academy of Sciences
Puget Sound Institute Director and University of Washington Tacoma Professor of Environmental Science Joel Baker is one of 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2021. Baker, an environmental chemist who has worked extensively on science and policy issues related to Puget Sound, was selected for his “foundational work on […]