New images of cigar-shaped M82 galaxy capture millions of stars

The Messier 82 galaxy, known as M82 or the Cigar galaxy, has long fascinated researchers with its astronomical rate of star formation ā€” approximately 10 times faster than the Milky Way. Researchers have pored over grainy, low-resolution, images taken by previous generations of telescopes, which werenā€™t powerful enough to see through the thick cloud of dust surrounding the galaxy. The , however, can pierce straight through with extremely sharp vision. That enabled a team of astronomers from multiple institutions, including NASA and the UW, to capture new high-resolution images. Posted June 23, the images include more than 16.5 million individual stars and provide the clearest look yet at M82ā€™s , the flattened central hub that contains most of the galaxyā€™s stellar mass. That could help scientists understand how M82 formed and for how long it has been producing stars so prodigiously.

For more information, contact team member a UW research professor of astronomy, at benw1@uw.edu.

All images are included in NASAā€™s

New study maps pollution disparities by state and sector across almost 20 years

Air quality in the United States has improved markedly since the landmark Clean Air Act passed in 1970. However, the gains have not been equally shared: Today, communities of color and low-income communities are exposed to disproportionately more air pollution than the overall population. In in Science Advances, UW researchers created the first comprehensive map cataloging how air quality inequity has changed per state and economic sector from 2002 to 2019. The study confirmed that, despite improvements in overall air quality, pollution tends to be concentrated in Black, Hispanic and low-income communities. The findings include specific state-level opportunities for improvement across 11 sectors ā€” for example, disparities in construction-related emissions in Florida increased significantly during the study period. The findings and resulting database could help policymakers across the country prioritize environmental justice projects.

For more information, contact senior author , UW professor of civil and environmental engineering at jdmarsh@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are , , and . A full list of co-authors is .Ģż

Researchers observe ultrafast chemistry happening in real time

Molecules are not static. Instead, they are having little dance parties ā€” their atoms wiggle and twist around in space. Occasionally, upon receiving a burst of energy, the bonds holding atoms together in a molecule can break and reform with the atoms in a different configuration. While the number of atoms stays the same, the orientation of these atoms determines a molecule’s chemical properties ā€” an important part of its identity. In , a UW-led team witnessed firsthand, and for the first time, a molecule turning into its “alter ego.” The researchers observed a hydrogen atom, also known as a proton, jump to a new position by bonding to a different atom in the same molecule. This process, which happens within a few millionths of billionths of a second, is important for various fundamental processes, including photosynthesis, and when DNA acquires mutations. To understand why, and how, this happens so fast, the researchers developed a new tool that probes molecular structure on an ultrafast timescale. They were able to use this technology to detect how the molecule’s wiggles allowed the proton transfer to happen. These findings will help researchers test existing theories about these ultrafast chemical dynamics and develop new molecules for clean energy processes.

For more information, contact senior author , UW professor of chemistry, at mkhalil@uw.edu.ĢżĢżĢż

Co-authors , and completed this work while at the UW. Funding information is .

Random events leave lasting signature on the atmospheric methane record, new study shows

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with a complicated life cycle. Itā€™s released into the atmosphere by both natural and industrial processes, and there are multiple pathways by which itā€™s broken down. Recently, atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs but the rate of accumulation has been somewhat inconsistent over time. To understand why, researchers are looking at climate records preceding the industrial era, via ice cores. These deep cylinders of glacial ice document slow swings in atmospheric methane levels spanning decades, or even centuries. This pattern is typically associated with gradual climate change, but in , UW researchers show that it doesnā€™t have to be. Instead, they reveal that short-term, random events, such as fires or changes in wetlands, can spark gradual shifts. Not only does this clarify the historical record, but it also adds nuance to modern trends.

For more information, contact senior author , UW doctoral student of atmospheric and climate science at emei@uw.edu.

The other UW co-authors are and . A full list of co-authors is .

Why is it important to study mosquitoes?Ģż

Willem Laursen: Mosquitoes have been an enduring scourge of humanity for millennia. Their bites are a nuisance to humans and animals alike, and ancient texts describe illnesses consistent with mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, long before the source of transmission was understood.

Globalization and climate change are expanding the geographic range of many mosquito species, and their increasing resistance to insecticides threatens the long-term effectiveness of current control strategies. As a result, we urgently need new approaches for controlling mosquito-borne disease.

If we can better understand the genetic and sensory basis of mosquito behavior, we might be able to find new opportunities to disrupt disease transmission. Critical behaviors such as host seeking and blood feeding are highly specialized and difficult to model in other organisms, making it essential to study these mechanisms directly in mosquitoes themselves.

Andrea Durant: These mosquito-related problems are not just for humans. Warmer winters and early-season snowmelt have led to massive swarms of mosquitoes coinciding with wildlife migration, which changes foraging patterns in the Arctic tundra and forces animals like caribou to use precious energy reserves on evading these mosquito-blackened skies. Mosquito swarms are also a big problem for agriculture, particularly cattle herds.

What do you study?

AD: My lab studies how mosquitoes maintain a stable internal environment when faced with changing external conditions. Mosquitoes start their life as an egg that is deposited in or near water, and the larval, or juvenile, stages are aquatic. Unlike the terrestrial flying adult mosquito that has agency in its choice of residence, a mosquito larva is tied to wherever it hatches ā€” it must survive and develop there, or die.

Sometimes the aquatic reservoirs where an adult female has selected to lay her eggs can be quite extreme, such as very polluted freshwater and seawater. We study specialized adaptations that allow these larvae to survive ā€” most mosquito species require clean freshwater for larval development. Our goal is to reveal how mosquitoes have been able to successfully expand their habitats to places like urban sewage systems and salty coastal habitats.

WL: In my lab, our research focuses on understanding how mosquitoes sense things at the cellular level. We are trying to determine what proteins mosquitoes use to detect human-associated cues, such as heat and humidity. By identifying the cellular and molecular machinery mosquitoes use to find hosts, food sources, mates and egg-laying sites, we hope to better understand how specialized behaviors, such as blood feeding, evolve, and to uncover new targets for controlling the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases.

Jeffrey Riffell: My lab studies the ā€œhowā€ of mosquito biting behavior. We also study how they visit flowers and plants ā€” yes, they can pollinate certain plants! ā€” to understand their natural behaviors. By learning more about mosquito physiology and behavior, we would like to develop new tools for traps and ways to control mosquitoes around people’s homes.

Tell us what it’s like to be someone who studies mosquitoes.

JR: Mosquitoes, all day and all the time. Although we try to minimize the potential for mosquito biting in the lab and in our field sites, you have to grin and bear it when dealing with these little vampires.Ģż

WL: Being around large swarms of mosquitoes all day does desensitize me a bit. Sometimes I will be out hiking or camping with family members and I won’t be paying much attention until I start hearing complaints about the mosquitoes. Working with mosquitoes also leads me to do funny things, such as collecting sweat or wearing a nylon stocking for days to collect human odors for behavioral assays.

Rearing transgenic mosquitoes in the lab is a bit like ranching: We have to keep track of large herds of animals. Because the life stages live in different environments, we have to constantly shuttle them around between water-filled trays, for the larvae/pupae, and cages, for the terrestrial adults. We also have to move the adults around on a specific schedule to make sure they have access to our artificial blood feeders. Some lab members jokingly put a sign on the door that says “Welcome to The Ranch.”

AD: Willem is to a rancher as I am to a protagonist in “Swamp People.” We often venture outside of the lab to hunt mosquitoes in their natural habitat in urban and peri-urban areas. Sometimes we find ourselves in picturesque places like the beautiful pillow basalt coastlines of the San Juan Islands. Most often, I can be found headfirst in a nutrient-rich septic system in someone’s backyard filled with mosquito larvae or marching into the fray of massive swarms of saline-tolerant mosquitoes that await in tidal marshlands and mangrove forests.

What is the coolest mosquito fact you know?

WL: There are over 3,500 species of mosquitoes, with vastly different appearances, life histories and host preferences. Many are generalists. A few strongly prefer humans and some feed from cold-blooded animals like frogs or earthworms. The large amber-encased Toxorhynchites elephant mosquito shown in the movie “Jurassic Park” feeds on other mosquito larvae and doesnā€™t actually drink blood at all.

JR: I like These mosquitoes are very pretty, and they shoot their eggs into tree holes.

Whatā€™s one thing you wish people understood about mosquitoes?

AD: The incalculable misery that mosquitoes exert on humans and other animals certainly overshadows any appreciation for the importance of mosquitoes in nature. Many species of mosquitoes are critical to biodiversity and are actually fundamental to the food chain. There are numerous examples of areas with reduced breeding success and animal survival because there have been effective vector control programs and non-targeted mosquito eradication efforts.

For more information, contact Laursen at wlaursen@uw.edu, Durant at durantan@uw.edu and Riffell at jriffell@uw.edu.

Every summer, , ĢĒŠÄŌ­““ associate professor of biology, and members of her lab head to northern Botswana to study how large predators, such as lions and African wild dogs, are affected by climate change and other shifts in their environment.

The researchers are particularly interested in understanding how these predators are changing their behavior ā€” including where they go and when they reproduce ā€” as the days get hotter and as the animals are more likely to come into contact with people. One example is a project studying how interactions between lions and wild dogs, which don’t typically get along, might change during heatwaves and droughts.

Abrahms is returning to Botswana again this summer, along with two other researchers in her lab: , a UW research scientist in biology, and , a UW doctoral student in biology. , UW professor of environmental and forest sciences, will also be joining for parts of the season. UW News asked Rafiq and Poulin a few questions about their upcoming work for the occasional series ā€œIn the Field,ā€ which highlights UW field efforts.

Tell us about the trip. Where are you going?

Kasim Rafiq: Our team will be traveling to the fringes of the . We have a long-standing partnership with , which has been operating a long-term monitoring program there since the 1990s. As part of this program, Wild Entrust operates a remote bush camp that we work out of, which we affectionately call “Wild Dog Camp,” or “Dog Camp” for short. This is really just a collection of tents in the middle of the African bush, and everything is non-permanent, meaning it could be quickly taken apart.

The camp is located in an area managed by the local community for wildlife tourism, and it borders the . So, itā€™s a wild landscape with lots of wildlife and lush vegetation. Thereā€™s no fence around the camp, so itā€™s not uncommon for animals to wander through the camp day and night, including lions, elephants, leopards and various species of snakes.

Have you visited this site before?

KR: I first came to Dog Camp in 2013 as a research assistant and then I completed my masterā€™s and doctoral research there studying leopards. For my doctoral project, I stayed at the camp for two years because leopards are pretty tricky to study. I’ve been back to Dog Camp every year since I joined the Abrahms Lab as a research scientist in 2021.

I feel very privileged to have been able to work with the people in camp for such a long period of time. Itā€™s been special to see how the camp has developed over that period, and also to maintain relationships with the Botswana-based teams.

MP: I joined the Abrahms Lab in 2024 and spent time in the field that year to become familiar with the carnivores that we study. I returned in 2025 and I began to learn essential field skills, such as how to track and follow carnivores in the bush. Iā€™m excited for my third visit to the field site this year.

How do you study these creatures?

KR: We use a combination of techniques. We directly watch these predators and use new conservation technologies to monitor animals year-round and during periods when itā€™s just not possible to follow them, such as when it’s too wet.

One key technology we use is wildlife tracking collars that use GPS sensors to let us see where the animals are going and accelerometers and microphones to let us know what theyā€™re doing. We like to think of these collars as Fitbits for wildlife. Just like your fitness tracker helps you better understand your movement and your sleep, these collars allow us to get deep insights into an animalā€™s behavior.

Can you talk about some of the projects you’re working on?

MP: Iā€™m looking at how social structure in wild dogs may influence how they respond to environmental change. Wild dogs live in tight-knit packs, just like grey wolves in North America. In each pack, usually only one lead pair has pups, while the rest of the pack ā€” often aunts, uncles and older siblings ā€” all work together to babysit, feed and protect the pups.

In my research, I am investigating how a packā€™s “social profile,” such as its size, family ties and history, affects how the animals adjust their movement patterns during heatwaves and droughts. I’m also looking at how increasing temperatures affect the timing of these dogs’ reproduction.

Overall, Iā€™m interested in understanding if the benefits of living in a group, such as the higher hunting success, pup care, and reproductive success seen in larger packs, might help buffer the impacts of environmental change on animal populations.

What are your goals for this trip?

KR: This year, our plan is to deploy tracking collars on the long-term lion and African wild dog study populations across our field site. The data that we’ll get from these collars is crucial for helping us understand how behaviors change year after year as a result of environmental change.

A key part of this field season will also involve following animals with these sensors and collecting video recordings of them doing different behaviors, such as where and how they hunt and feed. We will use the video data to train AI models that allow us to better understand how climate change is affecting these behaviors.

Whatā€™s something you really enjoy about doing this field work ā€” especially something that might not occur to most people?

KR: Two of the things I enjoy most are the behind-the-scenes parts of the work that are critical to this type of fieldwork, but that people rarely think about or see.

First, I really enjoy tracking animals. Thereā€™s something quite meditative about following a wild animalā€™s footprints through the grass.

The second is vehicle mechanics. Around 80% of fieldwork is fixing your Land Rover when it breaks down for some unknown reason, and although that tinkering can be frustrating, itā€™s also fun. Some of my favorite memories in the bush come from sitting in the sand and taking apart the engine.

MP: I love tracking animals using radio telemetry. The tracking collars we put on animals send out radio signals that we can detect with an antenna and receiver. By listening for the “ping,” we can tell which direction the animal is in and roughly how far away it is. The carnivores we study roam across huge areas, so tracking them often means a lot of driving on rough roads and not always having successful searches. But, hearing that first ā€” often really faint ā€” “ping” is always super exciting, and finding the animals feels rewarding.

I also especially love being in the field around sunrise and sunset, when the landscape looks golden, feels peaceful and the animals are most active.

More generally, is there anything you find surprising about doing field work?

KR: Although fieldwork is intensive and often the busiest part of the year, itā€™s busy in a very different way from office work. Iā€™m often surprised that, despite the long hours, I feel more energized in the field than I do at my desk. I think part of that comes from being so close to the animals and the landscape youā€™re trying to understand.

Iā€™m also a big believer that, although technologies like GPS collars and audio recorders now allow us to collect huge amounts of data from the comfort of our offices, those data are only as useful as our ability to interpret them. To do that well, you really need to understand your study animal. There are many ways to build that understanding, from reading books to watching documentaries, but for me, nothing compares to spending time in the field. I always come back with a dozen new ideas that have appeared while simply sitting and watching the animals.

MP: Doing field work is really enlightening. Itā€™s extremely valuable because it gives us a better understanding of the animals and their environment. By observing where animals spend their time, how they interact with one another and with other species, and the challenges they face, we can develop more meaningful research questions. Spending time in the field also sparks creativity, because it allows us to see and notice unexpected behaviors and inspires new ideas for research.

For more information, contact Rafiq at rafiqk@uw.edu and Poulin at mpoulin1@uw.edu.

Is it a doctor’s job to get the best outcomes for their patients or to tell the truth? What happens when these two things are not aligned? These are questions that ĢĒŠÄŌ­““ students have to wrangle with in Biol 180: Introductory Biology. The goal, says , UW assistant professor of biology, is to have students experience a more nuanced side of biology. There is not always one right answer, and issues of power and relationships often come into play.

Theobald aims to connect the biology concepts the students learn in class to real-world issues, something she hopes will help both retain students in the biology major at the UW and help non-majors in the class with their future careers.

Just how common is it for biology curricula to include real-world examples? One way to answer this question is to look at educational resources for biology instructors.

In published in Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, Theobald and her team examined almost 3,000 science guidelines and assessment questions from 16 sources ā€” including MCAT practice questions and questions from the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science and AP biology tests ā€” for any connections to society. Of the approximately 200 elements ā€” about 7% ā€” that had real-world implications, many discussed ethics and public health issues.

UW News spoke with Theobald; lead author , UW postdoctoral fellow in biology; and co-author , UW doctoral student in biology, to find out more about these results and what they mean for biology education today.

Why do you think so few learning objectives and assessment questions were connected to real-world examples?

Carly Busch: One reason is probably that there’s a perception that real-world connections are not a part of the primary purpose of the course, that they only belong as an addendum or an aside.

This perception makes sense in some ways, given how departments and institutions have conceptualized biology and what biology undergraduate students expect to get out of a biology degree. But the lack of these connections to society was also remarkable, because I think they play a really important role in developing undergraduate students holistically and broadly as they continue on in their science careers. Real-world examples can support students’ interest in science and help them develop their scientific identity.

Madison Meuler: I think there is also a belief of, “Oh well, this is an intro biology class. If this person is going to be a scientist, they’ll get training in the societal stuff later.” But I think there’s value in having this type of information even in intro courses.

Students in these courses may or may not go on to major in biology, and may or may not pursue a career in STEM. But even if this is their only science course in college, what could they take away from it that can help them be an informed citizen in the world?

Science plays a huge role in politics and in a lot of decisions that affect people’s day-to-day lives. It’s a missed opportunity if you’re not making those connections in the classroom. We want students, regardless of their future careers, to at least walk away being equipped with some skills to critically analyze the role that science is playing in society.

You found that roughly half of the questions that did mention society only vaguely referenced real-world scenarios. Can you give examples of implicit versus explicit mentions?

CB: So the most vague mention was from the American Association of Immunologists’ recommendations for an undergraduate immunology course. This is one of the advanced subtopics that they list: the implications of Emil Von Behring’s . We coded it as a vague mention because some of those implications could be related to society, not only focused on scientific experiments.

An example of explicit incorporation is from the bioinformatics core competencies. It asks students to explain the implications, good and bad, of being able to walk into a doctor’s office and have your genome sequenced and analyzed, or of being able to obtain genetic information from direct-to-consumer testing services. There we have a very clear example of students being asked to think about how the science concept fits in with society.

Do you think that connecting science to society can help retain students in science?

CB: We haven’t tested this yet, but based on prior research, there is reason to believe that incorporating these connections is going to help students be more engaged in what they’re learning in class. Engagement is closely tied to students’ performance outcomes, which often make or break their decision to persist in a major.

There is also a theory that helping students apply what they’re learning in the classroom to things happening in their lives and in their communities .

This is something I am excited to study in the future ā€” to understand how making these connections expands students’ perceptions of what science is and who does science. The types of research questions that most scientists ask are on topics they personally are interested in. Maybe they study wildflowers in Washington because they love hiking, and they’ve always been struck by how beautiful the flowers are. That’s the beauty of being an academic researcher: You get to explore all of the different things that you’re curious about.

MM: Connecting content to real-world experiences could also increase retention by helping students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom. You’re far less likely to persist in a class if you feel like you don’t belong in that physical space, right? The course content definitely plays a role in that.

I think that making these connections between content and societal issues could help students start thinking things like, “Oh, this is a thing I care about, how could I design a study that could provide evidence to help inform a policy decision?”

Elli Theobald: Students have said to me, “I don’t want to be a scientist because I want to help people.” And that’s a problem. If we’re teaching science in a way that makes it feel like it isn’t helping people, then we’re doing something wrong. It’s just such a huge disservice to biology because we’ll lose so many amazing and capable students who could push our field forward.

This study looked at biology education resources. Do you know if biology instructors are already incorporating more real-world connections in their courses? Ģż

CB: If instructors aren’t getting support but they’re still making these connections in the classroom, it’s because they are putting that onus on themselves and choosing to add it. I applaud all instructors who are making these connections, and I fully expect that more connections are being made than and in these resources. We are currently collecting actual course materials from intro bio courses to see where instructors are making these connections.

But I also think that it would be such a valuable resource for instructors to have more support in making those connections. Here’s where I think really bolstering the amount of resources for instructors could provide more scaffolding for instructors to be able to provide a variety of connections, or to even recognize opportunities to make these connections in the course objectives. One of my hopes for this work is that it helps to provide motivation for those sorts of materials.

ET: Instructors are amazing. They’re working so hard to connect the content in some way to students’ lives, or to find the best, coolest examples. They need to have support from their institutions to be able to do more of this in their classrooms.

This research was funded by The National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Theobald atellij@uw.edu Busch at cbusch3@uw.edu and Meuler at mmeuler@uw.edu.

Plants may not appear aggressive, but they can still defend themselves while under attack. When caterpillars chomp the leaves of bean plants, these plants release gases that lure predatory wasps. The wasps prey on the caterpillars, saving the plants from further destruction. In a paper , a UW-led team demonstrated that this defense strategy is run by a protein called INR, or inceptin receptor. The researchers grew bean plants with naturally occurring mutations in the INR gene alongside plants with functional INR in an experimental field in Oaxaca, Mexico. The knock-out plants didn’t emit gases and attracted far fewer wasps. This result helps explain a previous study by this team that first identified the biochemical pathway behind this defense mechanism. These results also showcase how the tiny actions of a single protein can affect the behavior of wasps and caterpillars, and in turn, protect the health of the plant. This could benefit nearby plants as well, the researchers said. Beans are often grown alongside “,” such as corn, with the idea that each plant provides a benefit for the others. Beans help make the soil richer for their companions, and, through the actions of INR, could also protect their neighbors from pests.

For more information, contact senior author , UW associate professor of biology, at astein10@uw.edu.ĢżĢż

The other UW co-authors are , , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included .

Decades of satellite data show Himalayan rivers migrating rapidly in response to climate change

The movement of rivers is often described in terms of flowing water, but the path a river takes can also change. Some migration is normal, but in the Himalayas, rivers seem to be scrambling faster than scientists anticipated. In a study , researchers show that rivers in the Tibetan Plateau moved twice as much from 2000 to 2020 as they did from 1980 to 2000. As glaciers melt and frozen ground thaws in response to rising temperatures, rivers are inundated with silty meltwater from surrounding glaciers. The water picks the path of least resistance through softening ground. The ā€œmovementā€ includes small lateral shifts, big swings that cut off entire sections of river and occasionally, . The international team attributes their observations to climate change, which is driving temperatures up faster here than many other places. More than 2 billion people rely on these rivers for fresh water and researchers are concerned about communities downstream, as well as the potential for similar patterns that may play out elsewhere.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of Earth and space sciences at bigdirt@uw.edu.ĢżĢż

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Researchers shrink eye-catching structure down to the nano scaleĢż

made using a network of freestanding bars suspended by a web of thin, tense cables. The organization of the bars and cables allows the network of tension and compression forces to lock everything into place, creating a lightweight yet stiff structure. Tensegrities of different sizes are common in nature ā€” examples include and the that help living cells maintain their shape ā€” as well as in diverse manmade structures like , and . Now, a team of engineers at the UW have found a way to create tensegrities as small as five micrometers across ā€” roughly a tenth of the width of a human hair. in the aptly-named journal Small, researchers used a specialized and a resin compound to print bar-and-cable structures about 30 micrometers across. They then heated the materials to 900 degrees celsius, causing the structures to shrink by over 80%. As they shrank, the thinner cables constricted more than the bars, resulting in nanostructures with specific, locked-in levels of stress that were up to 250% stiffer than the starting structures. The team is now working on ways to build larger materials composed of tiny tensegrities, which could eventually usher in a new class of stiff, light and impact-resistant materials.

For more information, contact lead author , a UW doctoral student of mechanical engineering.

Other UW co-authors are , , Zainab S. Patel, , and . Funding information is included .Ģż

Scientists find a key water source for atmospheric rivers

In December 2025, brought a seemingly endless onslaught of precipitation to Washington that caused and washed away roads and homes. In published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, UW researchers help explain where all that water came from. They describe a link between the , a weather pattern that brings moisture east across the Pacific, and atmospheric rivers. Hypotheses about this connection have emerged from previous studies, but researchers couldnā€™t physically draw it until now. By tracking precipitation and wind patterns from 2000 to 2024, the UW researchers show that heavy rainfall and flooding are more likely when MJO is active, which happens several times a year. By identifying the MJO as a key moisture source for powerful atmospheric rivers, the researchers hope to improve forecast accuracy and give people more lead time to prepare for incoming storms.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of atmospheric and climate science at shuyic@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are and . Funding information is .

Burrowing shrimp are small marine excavators native to Washington. They make their homes deep in the sediment by digging, turning the ground to Swiss cheese. This presents a problem for shellfish farmers, whose clams and oysters are often smothered under layers of displaced sediment.

Burrowing shrimp have been a nuisance for at least a century. In 1929, : “Oyster growers have tried various means of defense against these persistent burrowers. But there seems to be as yet no really adequate and at the same time practical method of coping with the marine ‘crayfish.'”

Shellfish farmers used to use pesticides to kill the shrimp, but the chemicals also posed risks to other organisms, such as salmon and crabs, and could be transported in water outside the shellfish growing area. The Department of Ecology in 2018. Since then, family-owned shellfish farms have been losing large portions of their growing grounds to burrowing shrimp.

Research led by the UW, and funded by the state, has yielded a non-chemical, proof-of-principle method for killing shrimp in targeted areas. The method, borrowing from the construction industry, uses a custom-built platform to apply vibration and pressure to a 50-square-foot region of sediment. This compacts the sediment and effectively traps shrimp in their burrows. Starved of oxygen, the shrimp die after a few days.

The researchers tested this method at four sites around Willapa Bay, Washington. It worked just as well as pesticides, reducing the number of live shrimp by between 72% and 98%.

“The challenge of managing burrowing shrimp on private tidelands has many dimensions. There still need to be enough shrimp to serve as food for gray whales and sturgeon, and the whole shrimp population is connected by a long larval phase in the ocean,” said senior author , UW professor of biology. “Once back in the estuary though, these shrimp can live for up to 10 years. Even a moderately sized shrimp, about four inches long, can bring a handful of sediment to the surface every day, dropping that on top of everything. We’re trying to find the balance ā€” how to keep them out of shellfish beds, but let them grow elsewhere.”

The team May 12 in the Journal of Shellfish Research.

“Burrowing shrimp have decimated our farm,” said Ken Wiegardt, a fifth-generation oyster farmer and head of Jolly Roger Oysters in Willapa Bay. “Weā€™ve lost 75% of our nursery ground and, as a result, the farm’s carrying capacity has fallen from 265,000 bushels of market-ready oysters to 75,000 bushels. Last month I had to lay off three oyster shuckers, each of whom had been with me for many years, because I just donā€™t have the oysters to process. The health of the Willapa Estuary as well as my business and all of my employees depend on finding an effective tool.”

Over the years farmers and researchers have toyed with the idea of trying to “mechanicallyā€ control shrimp populations.

“The idea was, ‘Letā€™s crush them underground, or crush them when they come to the surface,'” Ruesink said. “There are old photographs that show people using vehicles, such as repurposed tanks and snow crawlers, to try to target the shrimp.”

This idea resurfaced at a recent conference. Over lunch, Ruesink and shellfish growers decided . After careful analysis, the method proved ineffective.

Ruesink’s co-author, Alan Trimble, who was previously a research scientist at UW and is now volunteering on this project, had an idea for why the “crushing” experiment had failed.

“He told me, ‘You’re thinking like a dirt farmer and you need to start thinking like a concrete engineer instead,'” Ruesink said. “That’s when he mentioned these concrete vibrators in construction. When you pour concrete, if you don’t get all the bubbles out of it, it won’t be as strong. This is a consolidation technique for a wet slurry of particulates, which is exactly what a mud flat is.”

Ruesink and Trimble ran three experiments to test whether a concrete vibrator, a hand-held metal tube with a motor powered by a generator, could kill the shrimp. For each experiment the team compared sediment cores from treated plots to cores from untreated plots. The researchers took core samples on multiple days after treatment and counted live versus dead shrimp.

In an earlier experiment, the team tried using the vibrator while standing in the water. This method was successful in killing shrimp, but also not practical for scaling up. Jennifer Ruesink/ĢĒŠÄŌ­““

The best option was a custom-built floating platform with six vibrators mounted through a hollow part in the middle. Ruesink and Trimble added weights near each vibrator head to provide pressure in addition to vibration, a winning combination that compressed the sediment and killed the shrimp. The specific cause of death was asphyxiation, not the vibration.

While this proof-of-principle experiment seems promising, there’s more work to do before shellfish farmers can implement it. Right now it’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive process because everything is manually operated. Also, more studies need to be done to determine the long-term impacts to the ecosystem, from the shrimp in neighboring non-shellfish farm mudflats to other creatures living in the area.

“What we’ve done so far is introduce a novel control mechanism. No one had thought that you could trap the shrimp underground,” Ruesink said. “But this research wouldn’t have happened without the investment from the state and the private landowners and growers. I have such a deep appreciation for the opportunity to work with folks on something that is clearly affecting their lives.”

The researchers performed field trials on the private tidelands of Pacific Shellfish, Bay Center Farms and John Heckes. This research was funded by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

For more information, contact Ruesink at ruesink@uw.edu. For more information about Jolly Roger Oysters, contact Wiegardt at oysterman73@hotmail.com.

Sunbirds may look similar to hummingbirds ā€” small, iridescent birds with thin bills ā€” but it turns out the two are only distantly related. Sunbirds live primarily in Africa, Asia and Australia, and have a unique way to slurp up nectar. Unlike hummingbirds, which use minute movements in their bills to sip nectar, sunbirds use their tongues as a straw. published in Current Biology, a team led by researchers at the ĢĒŠÄŌ­““ showed that these long-billed birds can change the pressure at the base of their tongues to create suction that moves nectar through their tongues and into their mouths, a novel mechanism never before seen in vertebrates. The researchers used multiple techniques ā€” including high-speed video of sunbirds drinking red-dyed nectar from transparent artificial flowers ā€” to demonstrate this phenomenon across multiple sunbird species as well as build a mathematical model that describes how it works. Sunbirds pollinate the flowers they drink from, and researchers are interested in understanding how different sunbird species’ plant preferences affect the plant-pollinator networks across continents.

For more information, contact lead author , who completed this research as a UW doctoral student in biology, at david_cuban@brown.edu.ĢżĢż

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included . Related stories in and .Ģż

Seattle Fault gets 5,000 more years of sleepĢż

Just over 1,100 years ago an on the Seattle fault rocked ā€” and reshaped ā€” the Puget Sound region. It lifted the sea floor and sent a powerful tsunami through the sound. Researchers have estimated that this fault, which runs east to west beneath the middle of the city, will produce a large earthquake every 5,000 years or so. However, , recently published in Geology, pushes that estimate back to 11,000 years. The researchers extended this window by scouring submerged shorelines for evidence of significant elevation changes. The geological record at these sites dates back 11,000 years, but they only found evidence of one major earthquake. This information could be useful to those making seismic hazard maps, which help people understand the risks associated with different regions. Although other regional faults and the imposing pose more imminent risks to residents, the main Seattle fault doesnā€™t appear to be ready for rupture anytime soon.

For more information, contact lead author , UW research scientist of Earth and space sciences, at edav@uw.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included in the paper. Related story in .

The PNW has many rivers, but no system for gauging landslide dam risk

Scientists have a new tool for estimating lesser known hazards in the Pacific Northwest: and outburst floods. Landslides along rivers can block the flow of water downstream, creating a lake just above the slide area. Most landslide dams fail within 10 days, releasing trapped water in an outburst flood, which can be devastating. Last fall, 20 people died after in Taiwan. published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, UW researchers debut a mathematical approach to mapping landslide dam hazards based on valley width and projected slide size. When they applied the tool to a mountain range in Oregon, they found that roughly one-third of rivers in the study area were susceptible to landslide dams, with risk increasing in mountainous areas. If a landslide dam does form, alleviating pressure by for water to escape can help prevent flooding. Identifying high risk areas can help guide emergency response efforts following storms, earthquakes and other events that increase landslide risk.

For more information, contact lead author , UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences, at pmmorgan@uw.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Rubin observatory expected to spot many ā€˜imminent impactorā€™ asteroids

Small asteroids ā€” those 1 to 20 meters in diameter ā€”Ģż hit the Earth 35-40 times per year, though theyā€™re very rarely spotted by telescopes before impact. That could soon change: published in The Astrophysical Journal, UW astronomers calculate that the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory could discover one to two Earth-impacting asteroids annually , roughly doubling the number currently logged. The researchers expect Rubin to discover these asteroids an average of 1.5 days before impact, which is more warning time than ever before. Advance notice is extremely valuable in the case of larger asteroids that could be a threat to people or infrastructure. Because the Rubin Observatory is located in the Southern Hemisphere, it will likely discover many Earth impactors that existing asteroid surveys ā€” concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere ā€” miss.

For more information, contact lead author Ian Chow, a UW graduate student of astronomy, at chowian@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are Mario Jurić, Joachim Moeyens, Aren N. Heinze and Jacob A. Kurlander. A full list of co-authors is included .

Many marine microbes share a genetic toolbox for fixing supper at sea

Researchers have now identified a set of genes that allow some bacteria to process a compound, called homarine, that is abundant in the ocean and appears to play a key role in nutrient cycling. Phytoplankton produce loads of homarine, but scientists werenā€™t sure what became of it until now. In a recent study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers found a set of genes present in common and far-flung bacteria that convert homarine into glutamic acid, an essential building block for life. This suggests that homarine may be a vital and overlooked resource and highlights the importance of bacteria in stabilizing marine ecosystems. Previous studies also found that homarine serves as and helps small crabs . The UW team will continue studying homarine to better understand how it fits into the broader ecological landscape.

For more information, contact senior author , a UW professor of oceanography, at aingalls@uw.edu.Ģż

The other UW co-authors are , , , , , and Ģż A full list of co-authors and funding is

Mammals and dinosaurs coexisted on Earth until . Despite the devastation, some animals survived, including rodent-like mammals in the Cimolodon genus. These creatures are part of , a group that arose during the Jurassic Period and survived over 100 million years before going extinct. Studying these animals helps researchers better understand how mammals survived the mass extinction event and then diversified into the variety of mammals around today.

A research team led by the ĢĒŠÄŌ­““ has identified a new species in the Cimolodon genus from a fossil the team discovered at a research site in Baja California. The researchers estimate that this fossil is about 75 million years old. The new species, named Cimolodon desosai, was about the size of a golden hamster, the researchers said. It likely scampered on the ground and in trees and ate fruits and insects.

The researchers April 22 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

“The genus Cimolodon was a pretty common mammal during the Late Cretaceous, the last epoch of the Age of Dinosaurs. Cimolodon fossils have been found throughout western North America, from western Canada down through Mexico,” said senior author , a UW professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum. “This new species, Cimolodon desosai, was ancestral to the species that survived the extinction event. It and its descendants were relatively small and omnivorous ā€” two traits that were advantageous for surviving.”

When Wilson Mantilla and his team discovered the fossil in 2009, they found teeth, a skull, jaws and parts of the skeleton, including a femur and an ulna.

“It’s very hard to find fossils at this site compared to other areas,” Wilson Mantilla said. “At first, my field assistant found just a little tooth poking out. If he had just found that, I would have been over the moon. But then when we looked inside the crack of the rock, we could see there was more bone.”

The fact that the researchers uncovered more than just teeth for C. desosai means that they can better understand its size and shape and how it likely moved. It also helps fill out the picture of this genus and the habitat in which it lived, and contributes to a better understanding of the multituberculate group in general.

The researchers used digital imaging and a tool called micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT, to get high resolution images of the fossil. Then the team compared the teeth of C. desosai to those of its cousins in the Cimolodon genus to establish it as a new species.

“That far back in time everything is named based on their tooth characteristics,” Wilson Mantilla said. “If you find a skeleton that’s missing teeth, sometimes it’s hard to attach it to a name.”

The team named this species after Michael de Sosa VI, the field assistant who first found it, because de Sosa died while they were still analyzing the fossil.

“He was a great field assistant, and he was like a little brother to me,” Wilson Mantilla said. “It’s a great specimen to be associated with.”

Additional co-authors are , UW doctoral student in biology, at the University of Rhode Island; Yue Zhang, who completed this research as a UW postdoctoral fellow in biology; Meng Chen, who completed this research as a UW doctoral student in biology; and and at the Universidad Nacional AutĆ³noma de MĆ©xico.

This research was funded by UC MEXUS-CONACYT, DirecciĆ³n General de Asuntos del Personal AcadĆ©mico PAPIIT IN111209-2, the UW College of Arts and Sciences, the UW Department of Biology and the American Philosophical Society.

For more information, contact Wilson Mantilla at gpwilson@uw.edu.

Nautilus and Allonautilus cephalopods and their extinct ancestors have been drifting through of the ocean for more than 500 million years. Researchers have spent the last 40 years trying to understand how these mysterious “living fossils” thrive in areas with limited nutrients. published in Scientific Reports, a UW-led team documented new habits and habitats for current Nautilus and Allonautilus species. These creatures appear to live in deeper water than their extinct cousins did, and the younger ones live twice as deep as the fully mature adults. Nautilus and Allonautilus species scavenge their food and never stop moving. While a few species migrate hundreds of meters down at dawn and then back up at dusk every day, the team found that most species aren’t quite as intrepid. The researchers also describe a new population of Allonautilus in waters off the island , one of several populations thriving due to hunting restrictions inspired in part by research efforts from this team.

For more information, contact senior author , UW professor of both biology and Earth and space sciences, at argo@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included

Green clay tennis courts become carbon negative after 10 years

The United States has around a quarter of a million tennis courts, 40,000 of which are helping mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Green clay tennis courts, an alternative to traditional hard courts and the red clay courts popular in Europe, are constructed with a type of rock that reacts with carbon dioxide and water to sequester carbon as a stable dissolved salt. In , UW researchers show that in the U.S., green clay courts remove 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year and 80% of green clay courts make up for construction emissions within 10 years. Moving forward, the researchers hope to experiment with other materials that also remove carbon dioxide without compromising performance for players.

For more information contact lead author , UW assistant professor of oceanography, at fjpavia@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

Temperature dynamics, not just extremes, impact heat tolerance in mussels

Intertidal mussels, forming bumpy layers on shoreline rocks, withstand significant temperature swings as the tide ebbs and flows. These creatures live in one of the most thermally variable environments on Earth, but a new study shows that the rate, timing and duration of heating and cooling impact their metabolic rate, a proxy for overall health. At the UWā€™s , researchers exposed mussels to temperature regimens with equal highs and lows but different patterns of change. Even when the average temperature for a set period was the same, the musselsā€™ response was distinct. These results, , show that predicting how marine organisms respond to climate change means considering how temperature changes over time, not just how warm it gets.

For more information, contact lead author , assistant professor of biology at the College of the Holy Cross and a mentor for the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories , at mnishizaki@holycross.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

When algae stop growing, bacteria start swarming

Tiny geometric algae, called , produce nearly a quarter of the worldā€™s organic matter by photosynthesis. In the microscopic marine universe, diatoms coexist with both harmful and helpful bacteria. A new study, , describes how a recently identified species of marine bacteria targets diatoms based on growth phase and nutrient availability. Growing diatoms can resist bacterial attacks, but when growth ceases, the bacteria modulate their gene expression patterns to become aggressive ā€” first swimming and releasing compounds that damage the diatom and then clustering around them to feed. Bacteria can also overcome the diatomā€™s defenses in nutrient-rich environments. These findings highlight the dynamic relationship between bacteria and algae in the lab. Moving forward, researchers will explore what, if anything, changes in a more complex environment.

For more information, contact lead author , UW postdoctoral fellow in oceanography, at dawiener5@gmail.com.

Other UW co-authors are and . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

March 1 is World Seagrass Day, which celebrates the flowering plants that look like blades of grass waving in our oceans and in Puget Sound. as an opportunity “to promote and facilitate actions for the conservation of seagrasses in order to contribute to their health and development.”

, ĢĒŠÄŌ­““ professor of biology, studies the relationship between the environment and marine organisms, including eelgrass, the primary species of seagrass that resides in the waters in and around Washington.

In honor of World Seagrass Day, UW News asked Ruesink to explain what seagrass is and what makes the seagrasses in Washington unique.

What is seagrass and why is it important?

Jennifer Ruesink: Seagrasses are ā€œland plantsā€ that have moved into ocean habitats. They have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. There are only about 70 species of seagrasses, representing just 0.02% of all flowering plant species.

Seagrass matters to humans in many ways. It cycles nutrients and carbon, provides habitat for fish and decapods, and it anchors sediment in place, which contributes to shoreline stabilization. Itā€™s a sentinel species for good water quality ā€” in fact, impaired water quality from nutrient pollution, coastal building and erosion are its biggest threats.

Beyond these utilitarian values, seagrass is ā€œwonderfulā€ in the truest sense of that word ā€” the way it grows, moves and shapes the environment provides a continual source of wonder.

What makes seagrass different from seaweed and other ocean plants?

JR: In addition to seagrasses, there are many other photosynthetic organisms that live in the ocean. Collectively they provide half of our global oxygen. But the others are different from seagrasses: Seaweeds, also known as macroalgae, do not make roots or flowers. Tiny microalgae live on ocean surfaces, even on the seagrass leaves themselves. Other photosynthetic organisms, such as phytoplankton, drift as single cells or small colonies in the water.

Seagrasses are colloquially called ā€œgrassesā€ because many have grass-like shapes with long strap-like leaves that grow from the base, and their stems move horizontally underground. From an evolutionary perspective, seagrasses do not group with the terrestrial grass family but instead have unique families or share relatives with freshwater plants.

What does seagrass look like in the ocean?

JR: If you think of a prairie on land, it is full of different plant species that grow to different heights, flower at different times, and extract light and nutrients with different efficiencies. Seagrass meadows are the prairies of the ocean, but they frequently consist of just one seagrass species. Because the number of seagrass species is so small, much of the dramatic variability occurs within single species, rather than across multiple species. Here in Washington we mostly have the same species ā€” eelgrass, or Zostera marina ā€” thatā€™s found from 23-70 degrees north latitude on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

Tell us about eelgrass in Washington.

JR: The remarkable thing is that there is so much of eelgrass variability present within our state. For example, some populations have shoots that replicate solely by branching, making genetic copies of themselves as they go. Other populations have shoots that never branch, but instead germinate, flower and die within a summer, overwintering as seeds. Shoots in Washington range from a diminutive 0.7 feet to nearly 6.5 feet long.

It makes sense that this diversity within a species is a product of evolving in the varied environments of Washingtonā€™s vast and convoluted shoreline. We think this variability should confer resilience to change, but thatā€™s an ongoing exploration.

Washington also has two seagrass species other than Zostera marina: Ruppia maritima, which is a fast-growing species characteristic of brackish channels in saltmarshes, and Nanozostera japonica, which was established in the state in the 1950s after being inadvertently introduced from Japan. You can find them all growing together in a few places.

How would you suggest that someone celebrate World Seagrass Day?

JR: There are plenty of public-access shores around Seattle ā€” including Golden Gardens and the south side of Alki Point ā€” where you can see eelgrass growing. At this time of year, you might see nearby. These small geese feed on eelgrass to fuel their migration. To see eelgrass, you need a low tide since it canā€™t handle staying out of the water very long. On World Seagrass Day, good low tides occur after dark ā€” around 9 p.m. in the Seattle area. If you do find seagrass, you can take a picture and help data collection about its distribution by uploading your information to iNaturalist or .

Any time youā€™re at the beach, you might find eelgrass washed up on shore: Keep an eye out for the leaves ā€” green, flexible rectangles ā€” especially if they’re connected to chunky brown cylinders ā€” the stems, or . Each node on the rhizome is the scar of a former leaf. This is fun to think about because it helps demonstrate the dynamic lifestyle of this plant: Each leaf lasts a couple of months before itā€™s left behind on the rhizome and decays. Meanwhile the production of a new leaf every couple of weeks both turns over the biomass and moves the shoot along the sediment.

The point of ā€œWorld Daysā€ in general is to raise awareness about global issues of concern and to celebrate accomplishments: If you pass the news about Washington eelgrass along to someone else, thatā€™s a celebration!

For more information, contact Ruesink at ruesink@uw.edu.

Learn more about Jennifer Ruesink’s eelgrass research

Ruesink’s recent research on eelgrass delves into understanding the mechanism behind eelgrass flowering:

• (collaboration with Takato Imaizumi, UW biology professor)
• (collaboration with Kerry Naish, UW professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, and Takato Imaizumi, UW biology professor)
• (collaboration with Kerry Naish, UW professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences),