PSI director Joel Baker will present “Water in the City: Let’s Get Better At This” at the RAIN Superheroes of Science lecture series on April 8th in Tacoma. Water is ubiquitous. We all take it for granted and yet agonize over it. Most of us use 10 gallons each morning before our first cup of coffee and over 100 gallons throughout the day. While 3 in 10 people worldwide lack access to clean water in their homes, those of us in developed countries blithely turn the spigot. Despite this, we […]
By Jeff Rice How many fish are in the Salish Sea? It’s an impossible question that drives the Puget Sound Institute’s newest senior scientist Marc Mangel. Mangel has spent his career working on fish and fisheries issues and uses mathematical models to answer critical questions about species such as their population numbers and population health. He joins PSI this month as an affiliate professor at the University of Washington Tacoma where he will focus on a range of subjects related to species such as salmon and forage fish. Mangel comes […]
![Bay Mussels (Mytilus trossulus) on Edmonds Ferry Dock. Photo [cropped]: brewbooks (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/8840874065](https://www.pugetsoundinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/8840874065_da3b29ce56_crop_1200-150x150.jpg)
By Jeff Rice The opioid epidemic has now hit the waters of Puget Sound. State agencies tracking pollution levels in Puget Sound have discovered traces of oxycodone in the tissues of native bay mussels (Mytilus trossulus) from Seattle and Bremerton area harbors. The mussels were part of the state’s Puget Sound Mussel Monitoring Program. Every two years, scientists at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) transplant uncontaminated mussels from an aquaculture source on Whidbey Island to various locations in Puget Sound to study pollution levels. Mussels, which are […]
The Puget Sound Institute will host a seminar on Monday, April 16th at 11:00 AM focusing on geodesign-based planning support of green infrastructure. The seminar will be held at the Center for Urban Waters in Tacoma and is presented by Mary Roderick, PhD of the University of Washington Department of Urban Design and Planning. Green infrastructure is increasingly utilized to improve and restore ecosystem function and ecosystem services in urban areas; however, it is often implemented in a piecemeal, opportunistic, single-purpose fashion. This research uses the Steinitz geodesign framework to systematically analyze […]
Tanya Roberts is PSI’s newest research scientist, and comes to us from the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Environmental Assessment Program. While with Ecology (2005–2012; 2016–2017), Tanya worked with teams monitoring natural resources throughout the state, assessing groundwater, forest streams, and toxics, as well as serving as a data coordinator for a variety of Ecology programs. Her last several projects focused on Puget Sound, which led her to PSI where she will continue to support the ongoing Puget Sound recovery efforts funded through the National Estuary Program. Her initial work […]
The announcements are in and Puget Sound Institute researchers will be chairing or co-chairing at least five different special sessions at next year’s Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle. The sessions will include subjects as varied as Contaminants of Emerging Concern, microplastics, Pacific herring, ecosystem modeling and the potential influence of the region’s technology industry on Salish Sea recovery. Watch this space in the coming months for more details on these sessions and for in-depth coverage of the conference as it develops.
A collaboration between the University of Washington Puget Sound Institute (PSI), Oregon State University, Northern Economics, and the Puget Sound Partnership has been selected by the Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate the region’s science program. The four-year cooperative agreement provides an anticipated $7.25 million to create and communicate timely and policy-relevant science to support and enhance new recovery strategies. The collaboration also strengthens monitoring and modeling programs and identifies and promotes regional science priorities. The Puget Sound Partnership will receive and administer the primary award and other partners will receive […]
PSI research scientist Andy James has been funded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program to identify contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in the waters of Puget Sound. There are literally thousands of man-made chemicals known as CECs circulating in local waters, but very little is known about their impacts on wildlife. They are often found in tiny concentrations and can include residuals from pharmaceuticals and personal care products that are flushed through treated wastewater. James’s project will extend through May 2019 and will focus on the non-targeted sampling of […]
This much we know: Stormwater is nasty stuff. The state of Washington has called it one of the leading threats to the Puget Sound ecosystem. It can kill salmon within hours and it contributes to all kinds of health problems for species ranging from orcas to humans. What we don’t know, however, is exactly what’s in it. Rain and snowmelt wash an untold number of toxic chemicals from our streets and other impervious surfaces directly into our waterways, but there is no such thing as typical stormwater. It simply includes […]
This much we know: Stormwater is nasty stuff. The state of Washington has called it one of the leading threats to the Puget Sound ecosystem — it can kill salmon within hours and it contributes to all kinds of health problems for species ranging from orcas to humans. What we don’t know is exactly what’s in it. Rain and snowmelt wash an untold number of toxics into our waterways, but there is no such thing as typical stormwater. Its chemical makeup varies from place to place and depends on local […]
PSI’s lead ecosystem ecologist Tessa Francis is co-author of a 2017 paper linking increasing adult mortality of Puget Sound herring with regional population declines in the species. The authors report that natural mortality among herring four years and older has doubled in Puget Sound since 1973, suggesting a possible connection to declines at spawning sites near Cherry Point and Squaxin Pass. Age structure has been shifting in Puget Sound herring populations for the past 30 years, their analysis shows, which could have negative impacts on both herring and their predators. […]
This year has been as busy as any we have had since our founding in 2010. As we look forward to year seven (!) of our organization, we have put together a sort of highlight reel of accomplishments. At various points, PSI scientists worked to prioritize emerging contaminants in our waterways. We studied the health of forage fish populations, analyzed eelgrass abundance and brought together key scientific findings for Puget Sound’s marine and nearshore. Most recently, our team began helping to develop new state and federal Implementation Strategies that will prioritize future […]
