Environment

Scientists at this University of Washington facility in the San Juan Islands are working to help sunflower stars — a type of sea star — grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease. Jason Hodin, research scientist in the UW Department of Biology, is quoted.

The research, involving primroses and hawk moths, suggests that air pollution could be interfering with plant reproduction. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted, and Jeremy Chan, a former graduate student, is pictured.

Byproducts of car exhaust disrupt pollination by degrading the floral scents that insects use to track down their favorite plants, according to new research. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Many animals rely on scent to make sense of the world. Pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes may be making them nose-blind. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Scientists at the University of Washington have discovered that nighttime air pollution â coming primarily from car exhaust and power plant emissions â is responsible for a major drop in nighttime pollinator activity. Nitrate radicals (NO3) in the air degrade the scent chemicals released by a common wildflower, drastically reducing the scent-based cues that its chief pollinators rely on to locate the flower. The findings, published Feb. 9 in Science, are the first to show how nighttime pollution creates a chain of chemical reactions that degrades scent cues, leaving flowers undetectable by smell. The researchers also determined that pollution likely has worldwide impacts on pollination.

At the the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle, researchers discussed the increased use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for learning about things like spiders, bats, bees, elephants and other creatures. Jeff Riffell, a professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of ornithology at the UW Burke Museum, has dedicated his life to looking at hummingbirds in ways other people can’t. What he’s learned changed the world’s understanding of hummingbirds and, at times, has been of great use to humans.

Lisa Dabek (PhD, Psychology, 1994), senior conservation scientist at the Woodland Park Zoo, studies and protects tree kangaroos in the cloud forests of Papua New Guinea. 

"If a policy imposes costs locally to create benefits across the border, it is likely to run into local opposition. This is the story of Delhi’s air pollution as well as the global slowdown in addressing climate issues," write the UW's Nives Dolšak, professor of marine and environmental affairs, and Aseem Prakash, professor of political science.

Six University of Washington subjects ranked in the top 10, and atmospheric sciences maintained its position as No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2023. The ranking, released at the end of October, was conducted by researchers at the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, a fully independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation.

Hunting later at night may force the big cats to surrender their prey to larger carnivores, such as lions and leopards. Kasim Rafiq, a UW postdoctoral researcher in biology, is quoted.

Even the fastest animal in the world can't outrun the effects of climate change, according to experts. Cheetah populations are especially vulnerable to rising temperatures because hotter days are forcing them to behave more nocturnally, putting them in greater competition with other predators such as lions and African wild dogs, according to a study published in the journal Biological Sciences on Wednesday. Kasim Rafiq, postdoctoral scholar of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, a new study finds. The UW's Briana Abrahms, assistant professor of biology, and Kasim Rafiq, postdoctoral scholar of biology, are quoted.

Over the course of some 44,000 years, humans occupying the island of Timor-Leste, just north of Australia, changed their methods of making stone tools in lockstep with climate change, according to a recent study in Quaternary Science Reviews. Ben Marwick, professor of anthropology at the UW, is quoted.

Some are stubborn optimists. Others struggle with despair. Their faces show the weight they carry as they witness the impact of climate change. Kristin Laidre, associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the UW and principal scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory, and P. Dee Boersma, professor of biology at the UW, are featured.