Puget Sound Institute social scientist Kelly Biedenweg has published a comparative study of three well-being indicators in the Puget Sound region. The article appears in the August issue of the journal Society & Natural Resources. Abstract: Simple frameworks that generalize the best metrics of human well- being related to the natural environment have rarely been empirically […]
May 5, 2016
Paper looks at social–ecological approaches to herring management
A new paper co-authored by PSI’s Tessa Francis connects social and ecological factors influencing herring management in the Salish Sea. The paper, published in the journal Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, grew out of a three-day workshop held last year in British Columbia. The workshop was sponsored by The Ocean Modeling Forum, a collaboration between the School of Aquatic […]
February 25, 2016
Herring fishery’s strength is in the sum of its parts, study finds
The online publication UW Today reports on a recent paper co-authored by PSI research scientist Tessa Francis. The paper, published in the journal Ocealogia, describes how individual herring populations in Puget Sound exhibit a portfolio effect, collectively influencing and stabilizing the region’s population as a whole. Francis teamed up with the paper’s lead author UW doctoral student Margaret […]
August 12, 2015
New papers look at ‘zombie’ steroids
They are sometimes called ‘zombie’ chemicals. Some compounds thought to be safe and inactive can change into dangerously active forms when they are exposed to the environment. Two recent papers co-authored by PSI collaborator Ed Kolodziej look at some of the ways that regulators may need to account for these transformations. Cole, EA, McBride, SA, Kimbrough, KC, Lee, J, Marchand, […]
August 10, 2015
Assessing microplastics in the world’s oceans
Our Director Joel Baker recently co-authored Microplastics in the Ocean: A Global Assessment, an international report commissioned by GESAMP (The Joint Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection). GESAMP is an inter-Agency Body of the United Nations, comprised of a group of independent scientists providing advice to UN Agencies on a wide variety of […]
August 10, 2015
Impacts of diving ducks on herring populations
Puget Sound Institute Lead Ecologist Tessa Francis attended the 2015 meeting of the International Congress for Conservation Biology earlier this month in Montpellier, France. She presented results from her recent work with colleagues at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center evaluating the impacts on Puget Sound herring populations of herring egg predation by seabirds and other predators. […]
May 4, 2015
Is there a shift in the Puget Sound food web?
A Seattle Times story features a recent paper in the Marine Ecology Press Series about shifting baselines in the Puget Sound food web. Forty years of data from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reveal a trend toward more jellyfish and less of some forage fish species in the region. High amounts of jellyfish can […]
December 10, 2014
Paper says spawning herring show little preference for vegetation
Pacific herring are known to lay their eggs on a wide variety of submerged vegetation, from algae to seagrass. A new study in the Marine Ecology Progress Series reports that Puget Sound herring show little preference when it comes to these types of spawning vegetation. The paper, co-authored by Puget Sound Institute Lead Ecologist Tessa Francis, analyzes […]
October 22, 2014
Shifting plankton communities in Lake Washington
Puget Sound Institute Research Scientist Tessa Francis is the lead author on a new paper in PLOS One describing changes in Lake Washington plankton communities from 1962 to 1994.
July 1, 2014
Journal focuses on social sciences in Puget Sound recovery
The July 2014 issue of the journal Coastal Management focuses on the role of social sciences in Puget Sound recovery. PSI’s Lead Social Scientist Kelly Biedenweg was co-editor, and authored an article in the issue describing the development of Puget Sound human wellbeing indicators. Issue now available.