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. […]
July 31, 2015
PSI scientist argues that African elephants are two distinct species
Will it prompt new conservation strategies? Puget Sound Institute research scientist Nick Georgiadis was quoted recently in The Guardian about increasing evidence that African elephants should be divided into two species. Georgiadis and other scientists argue that this divide creates an urgent need to reassess elephant conservation strategies. Georgiadis is co-author of a paper in the Annual Review […]
July 30, 2015
State approves human wellbeing indicators for Puget Sound
The state today adopted a series of human wellbeing indicators for Puget Sound. The project was led by PSI social scientist Kelly Biedenweg and was featured in a story published by UW News and picked up by several news outlets. July 29, 2015 Healthier Puget Sound depends on healthy people, report finds Michelle Ma from […]
July 29, 2015
Human well-being indicators in the news
KPLU reports on new human wellbeing indicators under consideration by the Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council today. PSI Lead Social Scientist Kelly Biedenweg led the development of the indicators designed to track ways that the natural environment of Puget Sound contributes to human quality of life. Read the KPLU report online.
July 28, 2015
Leadership Council to vote on human wellbeing indicators
The Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council is slated to vote tomorrow on the adoption of a series of human wellbeing indicators for Puget Sound. The indicators were developed in part through research conducted by PSI Lead Social Scientist Kelly Biedenweg, and are meant to monitor some of the ways that humans benefit from the Puget Sound […]
July 24, 2015
Auklet recordings featured on Living on Earth
The Puget Sound region is home to one of the largest nesting colonies of rhinoceros auklets in the world. Each summer tens of thousands of these puffin-like birds raise their chicks on Protection Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. You can listen to the sounds of this summer ritual on PRI’s Living on Earth this week. The […]
July 8, 2015
Vital statistics and vital signs: Getting the facts
What do the following facts have in common? The coastline around Puget Sound is 1,332 miles long—2500 if you extend to its islands and straits. It would take about 18 days to walk it if it were passable (or legal) everywhere. Up to half of all the freshwater flowing into Puget Sound comes from the Skagit River. […]
June 23, 2015
PSI’s Tessa Francis co-leads Ocean Modeling effort
The University of Washington Tacoma News & Information website features PSI’s lead ecologist Tessa Francis and her work at the Ocean Modeling Forum. POSTED BY: John Burkhardt June 23, 2015 Tessa Francis at Center for Urban Waters Co-leads Ocean Effort UW Tacoma research scientist Tessa Francis has been named the managing director of the Ocean Modeling Forum, a […]
June 23, 2015
Wastewater study looks at Seattle marijuana use
One of our collaborators made news this week for his pilot study quantifying marijuana use in Seattle and Tacoma. Dan Burgard, a chemist at the University of Puget Sound, is analyzing wastewater from sewage treatment plants to identify levels of metabolized THC. The study is designed to determine if new recreational marijuana laws are leading to an increase in marijuana […]