From University of Washington: Women in STEM-“Sea lessons” Deana Crouser

From University of Washington

Originally published March 2019

Oceanography major Deana Crouser, ’19

RV Rachel Carson. Bennetblake

Oceanography major Deana Crouser, ’19, did more than just get her feet wet on the R/V Rachel Carson. She helped peer into the future of our oceans.

At 5:24 a.m., the R/V Carson’s engine has slowed to an idle. Under the light of a full moon, UW oceanography student Deana Crouser helps researchers lift up a drifter — a floating contraption fitted with a waterproof infrared camera — over the bow and into Hood Canal. Like that of the researchers, the drifter’s work has just begun. As the boat motors on, the drifter’s underwater camera begins capturing videos of tiny animals that play a crucial part in the marine food web: zooplankton.

No longer adrift

A year ago, Crouser would never have imagined herself filming marine animals in the dark. At the time, she was a chemical engineering major struggling to figure out how to apply her education to helping the environment, a cause she had always believed in. Then she took an introduction to oceanography course.

“It felt like I was in a TED Talk every time I went to class,” says Crouser, now a senior. “The lab is very hands-on. You have to do lots of experiments, and then you go on a day trip on the R/V Carson. Once I did that, I was all in.”

After changing her major to oceanography within the College of the Environment, Crouser landed a summer internship, funded by the National Science Foundation, that culminated in this research cruise. For several weeks beforehand, she spent time in the lab of oceanography professor Julie Keister, helping investigate the relationship between local water conditions and zooplankton populations.

It’s been a steep learning curve, but Crouser embraces it. “There’s always something to look forward to,” she says. “I feel like this internship gave me life again.”

Another aspect of her Husky Experience also helps Crouser feel hopeful about the future: her commitment to encouraging other women and people of color to explore STEM careers. She’s the outreach director for WChE (Women in Chemical Engineering) and the webmaster and historian for SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science). Much of her involvement comes from wanting to show people who look like her that they can be scientists, too.

“Even if I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, I still need to show up and show other people that they can be where I’m standing,” she says.

Tiny animals, big impact

Crouser admits that when she started her internship, “I didn’t know the name of one kind of zooplankton. I didn’t even know where they were in the food web.” Now she grasps their immense importance.

Zooplankton spend their lives evading predators and searching for food — usually phytoplankton, the microscopic algae that are the linchpin of all ocean life. Where phytoplankton bloom, so do zooplankton; and where zooplankton thrive, so do larger marine animals, from salmon to orca whales.

What will happen to zooplankton as our oceans continue to warm and absorb human-produced carbon dioxide, growing more acidic and hypoxic (low in oxygen)? And if they adjust their behavior because of these factors, what happens to the animals that feed on them?

These are big questions with big ramifications. To help peer into the future, Keister and fellow UW School of Oceanography Professor Daniel Grünbaum are starting very, very small.

A backyard laboratory

Professor Julie Keister stacks samples from different depths to show how zooplankton migrate in the water column.

For 10 days in September, Keister and Grünbaum cruised around Hood Canal on the R/V Carson, researching how zooplankton change their behavior in response to environmental conditions. Assisting them were Crouser, oceanography graduate students Sasha Seroy and Amy Wyeth, and volunteer Juhi LaFuente.

Part of Puget Sound, Hood Canal is a nearly 70-mile-long glacial fjord that runs down the east side of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, then crooks back to the northeast. Its waters are naturally more acidic than the open ocean’s, and its oxygen content drops in late summer and fall.

“Puget Sound is like a mini ocean,” says Keister. “It’s incredibly diverse oceanographically and biologically over small scales, so it’s really easy to study important processes here.”

Adds Crouser, “If you want to find out how ocean acidification and hypoxia affect everything from the bottom of the food web up, this is the place to do it.”

Lessons from the microscopic

Back on the R/V Carson, Crouser and Seroy are labeling containers full of specimens that were just hauled up from different depths.

One contains a thick soup of tiny krill and zooplankton. Another sample, from shallower water, is sparsely populated. It’s a vertical snapshot of a mass migration: Zooplankton surface at night to eat phytoplankton, then head back to deeper, darker water to avoid being seen by predators in the daylight.

Professor Daniel Grünbaum assembles infrared cameras to film zooplankton in dark waters.

Across a narrow passageway, Grünbaum is working at a table covered in wires, housings, infrared cameras and microcontrollers (small computers). He holds a microcontroller that will soon be attached to a drifter. “The technology is making this research easier, and the engineering is getting better and better,” he says.

That’s good, because in addition to tracking the movements of large zooplankton populations, he and Keister are observing individual zooplankton in their natural habitat with the help of infrared video cameras.

It’s hard to fathom that the behavior of a single microscopic creature might give us insight into the future of the Puget Sound and our oceans. But Keister and Grünbaum suspect that zooplankton’s behavior in response to changing environmental conditions may be magnified as they ripple up through the ecosystem.

“The water in Hood Canal is stratified,” explains Keister, meaning that different depths have widely divergent oxygen and pH levels. “Zooplankton are moving through big differences in conditions as they go up and down.”

Grünbaum gives an example of what these movements can teach us: If significant populations of zooplankton are able to hide in low-oxygen waters to avoid predators, we may see a drop in salmon populations and an uptick in jellyfish — predators that are better suited to those conditions.

Whatever the findings, says Keister, “It could have significant implications for the food web.” This includes humans: where we harvest animals, and what we are (or are not) able to catch.

Graduate student Amy Wyeth rinses off equipment before it is reused on a zooplankton-catching device known as a multinet.

The ocean of tomorrow

It’s nearly 2 p.m., and Crouser has helped haul up the last of the drifters. Dozens of containers of specimens await transport to UW labs, where they’ll be studied and added to a host of data from the previous year that may help shed light on the future of our oceans.

For having been awake since 3 a.m., Crouser is remarkably alert — and optimistic about her place in the future of oceanography, whether by measuring environmental impact or by increasing diversity in STEM professions.

“My role as a minority in science follows me wherever I go,” she says. “Regardless of what I’m doing, it’s my responsibility to let people see me being a scientist.”

As she continues on her career path, Crouser faces the reality that tomorrow’s ocean may be starkly different from what she’s known her whole life.

“There’s a lot at stake when it comes to the ocean,” she says. “It can be sad at times. But schools like this are what give me hope. It’s this research. It’s the UW.”

The R/V Carson passes under the Fremont Bridge on its way back to the UW.

The R/V Rachel Carson is a 78-foot research vessel purchased in 2017 with the help of a $1 million donation from William and Beatrice Booth. Beatrice, who earned her master’s in biological oceanography from the UW in 1969, was one of the first women scientists in the graduate program. She devoted much of her life to our oceans, working here as a biological oceanography researcher for 24 years.

Named after celebrated American conservationist Rachel Carson, the R/V Carson unlocks many possibilities for UW researchers. Compared to its predecessor, the much smaller R/V Barnes — a former tug boat — the R/V Carson was designed as a research ship. With larger lab space, better tools for lowering equipment into water and more space for people to sleep, the ship is much better equipped for multiday trips with more researchers. And, unlike the R/V Barnes, the R/V Carson is capable of traveling offshore for coastal ocean research.

The R/V Carson also helps connect scientists and students to their nearby waters: It’s available for use by oceanographic researchers and instructors from outside the UW, too.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

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The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington: “James Webb Space Telescope could begin learning about TRAPPIST-1 atmospheres in a single year, study indicates”

From University of Washington

August 13, 2019
Peter Kelley

New research from astronomers at the University of Washington uses the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 planetary system as a kind of laboratory to model not the planets themselves, but how the coming James Webb Space Telescope might detect and study their atmospheres, on the path toward looking for life beyond Earth.

New research from UW astronomers models how telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to study the planets of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 system.NASA

NASA/ESA/CSA Webb Telescope annotated

The study, led by Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, a UW doctoral student in astronomy, finds that the James Webb telescope, set to launch in 2021, might be able to learn key information about the atmospheres of the TRAPPIST-1 worlds even in its first year of operation, unless — as an old song goes — clouds get in the way.

“The Webb telescope has been built, and we have an idea how it will operate,” said Lustig-Yaeger. “We used computer modeling to determine the most efficient way to use the telescope to answer the most basic question we’ll want to ask, which is: Are there even atmospheres on these planets, or not?”

His paper, “The Detectability and Characterization of the TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST,” was published online in June in The Astronomical Journal.

The TRAPPIST-1 system, 39 light-years — or about 235 trillion miles — away in the constellation of Aquarius, interests astronomers because of its seven orbiting rocky, or Earth-like, planets. Three of these worlds are in the star’s habitable zone — that swath of space around a star that is just right to allow liquid water on the surface of a rocky planet, thus giving life a chance.

The star, TRAPPIST-1, was much hotter when it formed than it is now, which would have subjected all seven planets to ocean, ice and atmospheric loss in the past.

“There is a big question in the field right now whether these planets even have atmospheres, especially the innermost planets,” Lustig-Yaeger said. “Once we have confirmed that there are atmospheres, then what can we learn about each planet’s atmosphere — the molecules that make it up?”

Given the way he suggests the James Webb Space Telescope might search, it could learn a lot in fairly short time, this paper finds.

Astronomers detect exoplanets when they pass in front of or “transit” their host star, resulting in a measurable dimming of starlight.

Planet transit. NASA/Ames

Planets closer to their star transit more frequently and so are somewhat easier to study. When a planet transits its star, a bit of the star’s light passes through the planet’s atmosphere, with which astronomers can learn about the molecular composition of the atmosphere.

Lustig-Yaeger said astronomers can see tiny differences in the planet’s size when they look in different colors, or wavelengths, of light.

“This happens because the gases in the planet’s atmosphere absorb light only at very specific colors. Since each gas has a unique ‘spectral fingerprint,’ we can identify them and begin to piece together the composition of the exoplanet’s atmosphere.”

Lustig-Yaeger said the team’s modeling indicates that the James Webb telescope, using a versatile onboard tool called the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, could detect the atmospheres of all seven TRAPPIST-1 planets in 10 or fewer transits — if they have cloud-free atmospheres. And of course we don’t know whether or not they have clouds.

If the TRAPPIST-1 planets have thick, globally enshrouding clouds like Venus does, detecting atmospheres might take up to 30 transits.

“But that is still an achievable goal,” he said. “It means that even in the case of realistic high-altitude clouds, the James Webb telescope will still be capable of detecting the presence of atmospheres — which before our paper was not known.”

Many rocky exoplanets have been discovered in recent years, but astronomers have not yet detected their atmospheres. The modeling in this study, Lustig-Yaeger said, “demonstrates that, for this TRAPPIST-1 system, detecting terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres is on the horizon with the James Webb Space Telescope — perhaps well within its primary five-year mission.”

The team found that the Webb telescope may be able to detect signs that the TRAPPIST-1 planets lost large amounts of water in the past, when the star was much hotter. This could leave instances where abiotically produced oxygen — not representative of life — fills an exoplanet atmosphere, which could give a sort of “false positive” for life. If this is the case with TRAPPIST-1 planets, the Webb telescope may be able to detect those as well.

Lustig-Yaeger’s co-authors, both with the UW, are astronomy professor Victoria Meadows, who is also principal investigator for the UW-based Virtual Planetary Laboratory; and astronomy doctoral student Andrew Lincowski. The work follows, in part, on previous work by Lincowski modeling possible climates for the seven TRAPPIST-1 worlds.

“By doing this study, we have looked at: What are the best-case scenarios for the James Webb Space Telescope? What is it going to be capable of doing? Because there are definitely going to be more Earth-sized planets found before it launches in 2021.”

The research was funded by a grant from the NASA Astrobiology Program’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory team, as part of the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network.

Lustig-Yaeger added: “It’s hard to conceive in theory of a planetary system better suited for James Webb than TRAPPIST-1.”

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

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The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Warwick and U Washington: “First-ever visualizations of electrical gating effects on electronic structure could lead to longer-lasting devices”

University of Washington

From University of Warwick

Peter Thorley
Media Relations Manager
(Warwick Medical School and Department of Physics)
Email: peter.thorley@warwick.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)24 761 50868
Mob: +44 (0) 7824 540863

Electrons ejected by a beam of light focused on a two-dimensional semiconductor device are collected and analyzed to determine how the electronic structure in the material changes as a voltage is applied between the electrodes.Nelson Yeung/Nick Hine/Paul Nguyen/David Cobden

-Electronic structure of a semiconductor device – how it behaves when voltage is applied – visualised for the first time
-Insights from the technique will help development of high performance electronics with low power consumption
-University of Warwick and University of Washington led study uses focused light to ‘knock’ electrons out of atoms
-Helps to pave the way for two dimensional semiconductors in future electronics

Scientists have visualised the electronic structure in a microelectronic device for the first time, opening up opportunities for finely-tuned high performance electronic devices.

Physicists from the University of Warwick and the University of Washington have developed a technique to measure the energy and momentum of electrons in operating microelectronic devices made of atomically thin, so-called two-dimensional, materials.

Using this information, they can create visual representations of the electrical and optical properties of the materials to guide engineers in maximising their potential in electronic components.

The experimentally-led study is published in Nature* today (17 July) and could also help pave the way for the two dimensional semiconductors that are likely to play a role in the next generation of electronics, in applications such as photovoltaics, mobile devices and quantum computers.

The electronic structure of a material describes how electrons behave within that material, and therefore the nature of the current flowing through it. That behaviour can vary depending upon the voltage – the amount of ‘pressure’ on its electrons – applied to the material, and so changes to the electronic structure with voltage determine the efficiency of microelectronic circuits.

These changes in electronic structure in operating devices are what underpin all of modern electronics. Until now, however, there has been no way to directly see these changes to help us understand how they affect the behaviour of electrons.

By applying this technique scientists will have the information they need to develop ‘fine-tuned’ electronic components that work more efficiently and operate at high performance with lower power consumption. It will also help in the development of two dimensional semiconductors that are seen as potential components for the next generation of electronics, with applications in flexible electronics, photovoltaics, and spintronics. Unlike today’s three dimensional semiconductors, two dimensional semiconductors consist of just a few layers of atoms.

Dr Neil Wilson from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics said: “How the electronic structure changes with voltage is what determines how a transistor in your computer or television works. For the first time we are directly visualising those changes. Not being able to see how that changes with voltages was a big missing link. This work is at the fundamental level and is a big step in understanding materials and the science behind them.

“The new insight into the materials has helped us to understand the band gaps of these semiconductors, which is the most important parameter that affects their behaviour, from what wavelength of light they emit, to how they switch current in a transistor.”

The technique uses angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to ‘excite’ electrons in the chosen material. By focusing a beam of ultra-violet or x-ray light on atoms in a localised area, the excited electrons are knocked out of their atoms. Scientists can then measure the energy and direction of travel of the electrons, from which they can work out the energy and momentum they had within the material (using the laws of the conservation of energy and momentum). That determines the electronic structure of the material, which can then be compared against theoretical predictions based on state-of-the-art electronic structure calculations performed in this case by the research group of co-author Dr Nicholas Hine.

The team first tested the technique using graphene before applying it to two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors. The measurements were taken at the Spectromicroscopy beamline at the ELETTRA synchrotron in Italy, in collaboration with Dr Alexei Barinov and his group there.

Dr David Cobden, professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Washington, said: “It used to be that the only way to learn about what the electrons are doing in an operating semiconductor device was to compare its current-voltage characteristics with complicated models. Now, thanks to recent advances which allow the ARPES technique to be applied to tiny spots, combined with the advent of two-dimensional materials where the electronic action can be right on the very surface, we can directly measure the electronic spectrum in detail and see how it changes in real time. This changes the game.”

Dr Xiaodong Xu, from the Department of Physics and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, said: “This powerful spectroscopy technique will open new opportunities to study fundamental phenomena, such as visualisation of electrically tunable topological phase transition and doping effects on correlated electronic phases, which are otherwise challenging.”

The research was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, and the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

See the full U Warwick article here .
See the full U Washington article here .

*Citation from U Washington

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The establishment of the The University of Warwick was given approval by the government in 1961 and received its Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1965.

The idea for a university in Coventry was mooted shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War but it was a bold and imaginative partnership of the City and the County which brought the University into being on a 400-acre site jointly granted by the two authorities. Since then, the University has incorporated the former Coventry College of Education in 1978 and has extended its land holdings by the purchase of adjoining farm land.

The University initially admitted a small intake of graduate students in 1964 and took its first 450 undergraduates in October 1965. In October 2013, the student population was over 23,000 of which 9,775 are postgraduates. Around a third of the student body comes from overseas and over 120 countries are represented on the campus.

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington via Science News: “Increased control over ions’ motions may help improve quantum computers”

From University of Washington

via

Science News

July 22, 2019
Emily Conover

A single ion was put into quantum states with up to 100 quanta of energy.

ION MANEUVERS Physicist Katie McCormick (shown manipulating a mirror that directs a laser beam) and colleagues coaxed a beryllium ion to go through the motions. The ion exhibited precise quantum movements within an electromagnetic field. Burrus/NIST

Physicists are taking their quantum powers to the next level — the next energy level, that is.

Researchers have controlled the motion of a trapped ion, an electrically charged atom, better than ever possible before, manipulating the energy level of its oscillation within an electromagnetic field. A single ion of beryllium, trapped by electromagnetic fields, was made to oscillate according to scientists’ bidding, the team reports July 22 in Nature.

In quantum mechanics, energy comes in discrete amounts, packets known as quanta. Using lasers to tweak the ion, the researchers were able to set it oscillating within the electromagnetic field that confined it, with any number of quanta up to 100, breaking previously published records of about 17 quanta.

The team also put the ion in a superposition — a weird situation in which the ion is simultaneously in two energy states at once, making it ultrasensitive to any stray electromagnetic fields. The larger the difference in the two energy levels in superposition, the more sensitive the ion is. The researchers put the ion in a superposition between a state with no quanta of energy and one with 18. Such ions could be used as precise sensors to locate electromagnetic fields.

Scientists’ newly demonstrated prowess with ions could also be used to build better quantum computers. Some quantum computers store and process information via ions confined in traps, with lasers used to perform operations on the quantum data. Though quantum computers are still in their early stages, scientists predict the machines will be able to perform calculations more complex than what’s currently possible (SN: 7/8/17, p. 28).

“It’s an unprecedented level of control,” says Katie McCormick, a physicist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We’ve generated quantum states at a level that nobody has before.”

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington via Business Insider: “Deep below Alaskan ice, tiny life forms went untouched for 50,000 years. Scientists are probing them to improve the hunt for aliens.”

From University of Washington

via

Business Insider

Jul. 18, 2019
Aylin Woodward

Scientist Zachary Cooper climbs down a ladder into a tunnel leading to a cryopeg, a pocket of super-cool water suspended in the Alaskan permafrost, May 2018. Researchers are harnessed to a rope for safety. Shelly Carpenter/University of Washington

-In pockets of briny water 20 feet under the Arctic tundra, scientists have found thriving microbial communities.
-Some of these liquid pockets, called cryopegs, have remained untouched for 50,000 years.
-By studying the microbes that survive in these extreme environments, researchers can glean insight into what types of life to look for on planets like Mars or on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Almost one-quarter of the Earth’s northern hemisphere remains frozen year-round.

This permanently chilled ground, aptly named permafrost, consists of soil, rocks and sand held together by ice. Sometimes, permafrost traps pockets of bacteria and viruses hundreds of thousands of years old.

These unchanging conditions and sub-zero temperatures make patches of permafrost suitable analogs for the icy conditions on other planets and their moons. So scientists are studying the microbes that survive and thrive there to glean insight into the kind of extraterrestrial life we might discover elsewhere in the solar system.

Recently, researchers from the University of Washington took a new approach to this effort, probing subsurface pockets where sediment mixes with salty water. These pockets under the Arctic tundra are called cryopegs, and some have remained untouched for 50,000 years.

As it turns out, some are also home to thriving groups of microscopic bacteria.

“We study really old seawater trapped inside of permafrost for up to 50,000 years, to see how those bacterial communities have evolved over time,” Zachary Cooper, an oceanographer who recently presented some of this research, said in a press release.

The team’s hope is that the tiny lifeforms they found could offer clues about what types of creatures we should hunt for on Mars or other planets.

A view of Siberian permafrost from the air.Brocken Inaglory/Wikimedia Commons

Isolated for 50,000 years

In cryopegs, the water is so salty that the liquid remains unfrozen even at below-freezing temperatures.

To reach one of these underground pockets, Cooper and his colleagues drilled more than 20 feet into the permafrost near Utqiaġvik, Alaska.

They presented a DNA analysis of the bacteria that they discovered there at an astrobiology conference last month. To the researchers’ surprise, their analysis revealed that the isolated bacteria are thriving.

That shouldn’t be the case.

“The extreme conditions here are not just the below-zero temperatures, but also the very high salt concentrations,” Jody Deming, another study author, said in the press release. “140 parts per thousand — 14% — is a lot of salt. In canned goods, that would stop microbes from doing anything.”

A University of Washington research site sits a mile outside of Utqiagvik, Alaska. Zac Cooper/University of Washington

The primary microbe they found in the salty water was marinobacter, a common type of marine bacteria.

“Even though it has been in the dark, buried in frozen permafrost for a very long time, it originally came from the marine environment,” Deming said.

This shows that marinobacter are able to survive even when transplanted into a hyper-salty sediment pocket below the icy tundra.

“We were quite startled at how dense the bacterial communities are,” Cooper said. “We’re just discovering that there’s a very robust microbial community, co-evolving with viruses, in these ancient buried brines.”

Drilling into a subterranean tunnel

Researchers aren’t sure how cryopegs form under layers of ice. They could be former coastal lagoons that got trapped during the last ice age as the ocean receded.

To access this particular cryopeg, located about 20 to 25 feet below the surface, the researchers had to climb down a 12-foot ladder into the icy tundra, then crawl through a tunnel bored within the permafrost. The tunnel was only wide enough for a single person and not high enough to stand in.

Researchers then drilled into the tunnel floor to reach the cryopeg’s saline liquid.

Once they were finally able to analyze the samples they removed, the water turned out to be replete with tiny lifeforms.

Studying extreme environments could help scientists better understand Mars and Titan

These pockets of ancient saltwater could be very similar to the environments under the oceans and ice of other planets, the researchers wrote.

Mars may have once harbored a liquid ocean, and other moons in our solar system also have liquid water. Other ocean worlds include Saturn’s icy moons Titan and Enceladus, and Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede.

Studying how Earthly bacteria thrives in semi-frozen liquid environments could inform future space-exploration missions about what kind of life to look for and how to detect it. The researchers behind the recent work think that the types of adaptations that allowed marinobacter to survive in hyper-salty, sub-zero water could also arise in bacteria on other planets.

This near-infrared color mosaic from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the sun glinting off of Titan’s north polar seas.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Arizona/Univ. Idaho

Titan, specifically, is a prime candidate in the ongoing search for signs of extraterrestrial life. It’s Saturn’s largest moon and the second-largest moon in the solar system. Scientists refer to Titan as a “proto-Earth” because of its size, composition, and the bodies of liquid water on its surface. A colossal ocean of liquid water also likely exists below Titan’s roughly 60-mile-thick crust of ice.

Recently, NASA announced that its next $1 billion mission to space will send a nuclear-powered helicopter to explore Titan. The drone-like rotorcraft, nicknamed “Dragonfly,” is set to launch in 2026. Once it arrives at the distant moon, it will scan Titan’s surface seeking signs of past — or present — microbial alien life.

Dragonfly: NASA Announces Mission to Saturn’s Largest Moon Titan

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington and COSMOS: “Reefs on the move- Coral reefs shifting away from equator, new study finds”

From University of Washington

AND

From COSMOS Magazine

July 9, 2019

Corals and kelp.Soyoka Muko/Nagasaki University

Coral reefs are retreating from equatorial waters and establishing new reefs in more temperate regions, according to new research published July 4 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The researchers found that the number of young corals on tropical reefs has declined by 85% — and doubled on subtropical reefs — during the last four decades.

“Climate change seems to be redistributing coral reefs, the same way it is shifting many other marine species,” said lead author Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine. “The clarity in this trend is stunning, but we don’t yet know whether the new reefs can support the incredible diversity of tropical systems.”

As climate change warms the ocean, subtropical environments are becoming more favorable for corals than the equatorial waters where they traditionally thrived. This is allowing drifting coral larvae to settle and grow in new regions. These subtropical reefs could provide refuge for other species challenged by climate change and new opportunities to protect these fledgling ecosystems.

“This study is a great example of the importance of collaborating internationally to assess global trends associated with climate change and project future ecological interactions,” said co-author Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “It also provides a nugget of hope for the resilience and survival of coral reefs.”

The researchers believe that only certain types of coral are able to reach these new locations, based on how far the microscopic larvae can swim and drift on currents before they run out of their limited fat stores. The exact composition of most new reefs is currently unknown, due to the expense of collecting genetic and species diversity data.

“We are seeing ecosystems transition to new blends of species that have never coexisted, and it’s not yet clear how long it takes for these systems to reach equilibrium,” said co-author Satoshi Mitarai, an associate professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University who earned his doctorate at the UW. “The lines are really starting to blur about what a native species is, and when ecosystems are functioning or falling apart.”

The study site on Palmyra Atoll, one of the Northern Line Islands that lies between Hawaii and American Samoa.
Nichole Price/Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

This experiment in the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific is allowing researchers to enumerate the number of baby corals settling on a reef.

Recent studies show that corals are establishing new reefs in temperate regions as they retreat from increasingly warmer waters at the equator.

Writing in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series [above], researchers from 17 institutions in six countries report that the number of young corals has declined by 85% on tropical reefs during the last four decades, but -doubled on subtropical reefs.

“Climate change seems to be redistributing coral reefs, the same way it is shifting many other marine species,” says lead author Nichole Price, from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, US.

“The clarity in this trend is stunning, but we don’t yet know whether the new reefs can support the incredible diversity of tropical systems.”

The research team has compiled a global database of studies dating back to 1974, when record-keeping began. They hope other scientists will add to it, making it increasingly comprehensive and useful to other research questions.

See the full U Washington article here .
See the full COSMOS article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington: “Mysterious holes in Antarctic sea ice explained by years of robotic data”

From University of Washington

June 10, 2019
Hannah Hickey

The hole in the sea ice offshore of the Antarctic coast as seen by a NASA satellite on Sept. 25, 2017. NASA Worldview/NASA Blue Marble

The winter ice on the surface of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea occasionally forms an enormous hole. A hole that appeared in 2016 and 2017 drew intense curiosity from scientists and reporters. Though even bigger gaps had formed decades before, this was the first time oceanographers had a chance to truly monitor the unexpected gap in Antarctic winter sea ice.

A new study led by the University of Washington combines satellite images of the sea ice cover, robotic drifters and even seals outfitted with sensors to better understand the phenomenon. The research explores why this hole appears in only some years, and what role it could play in the larger ocean circulation.

The study was published June 10 in the journal Nature.

“We thought this large hole in the sea ice — known as a polynya — was something that was rare, maybe a process that had gone extinct. But the events in 2016 and 2017 forced us to reevaluate that,” said lead author Ethan Campbell, a UW doctoral student in oceanography. “Observations show that the recent polynyas opened from a combination of factors — one being the unusual ocean conditions, and the other being a series of very intense storms that swirled over the Weddell Sea with almost hurricane-force winds.”

A “polynya,” a Russian word that roughly means “hole in the ice,” can form near shore as wind pushes the ice around. But it can also appear far from the coast and stick around for weeks to months, where it acts as an oasis for penguins, whales and seals to pop up and breathe.

Satellite images from Aug. 30, 2017 through Dec. 2, 2017 show the rarely-seen opening in the late Southern Hemisphere winter sea ice. The two plus signs show the location of oceanographic robots that were trapped in a spinning column of water above an underwater mountain known as Maud Rise.AMSR2-ASI/University of Bremen

This particular spot far from the Antarctic coast often has small openings and has seen large polynyas before. The biggest known polynyas at that location were in 1974, 1975 and 1976, just after the first satellites were launched, when an area the size of New Zealand remained ice-free through three consecutive Antarctic winters despite air temperatures far below freezing.

Campbell joined the UW as a graduate student in 2016 to better understand this mysterious phenomenon. In a stroke of scientific luck, a big one appeared for the first time in decades. A NASA satellite image in August 2016 drew public attention to a 33,000-square-kilometer (13,000-square-mile) gap that appeared for three weeks. An even bigger gap, of 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) appeared in September and October of 2017.

The Southern Ocean is thought to play a key role in global ocean currents and carbon cycles, but its behavior is poorly understood. It hosts some of the fiercest storms on the planet, with winds whipping uninterrupted around the continent in the 24-hour darkness of polar winter. The new study used observations from the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project, or SOCCOM, which puts out instruments that drift with the currents to monitor Antarctic conditions.

The study also used data from the long-running Argo ocean observing program, elephant seals that beam data back to shore, weather stations and decades of satellite images.

Ocean measurements were also collected by seals swimming under the sea ice with temporary satellite tags, showing normal water conditions in the years that did not have large polynyas.Dan Costa/University of California, Santa Cruz

“This study shows that this polynya is actually caused by a number of factors that all have to line up for it to happen,” said co-author Stephen Riser, a UW professor of oceanography. “In any given year you could have several of these things happen, but unless you get them all, then you don’t get a polynya.”

The study shows that when winds surrounding Antarctica draw closer to shore, they promote stronger upward mixing in the eastern Weddell Sea. In that region, an underwater mountain known as Maud Rise forces dense seawater around it and leaves a spinning vortex above. Two SOCCOM instruments were trapped in the vortex above Maud Rise and recorded years of observations there.

Analysis shows that when the surface ocean is especially salty, as seen throughout 2016, strong winter storms can set off an overturning circulation. Warmer, saltier water from the depths gets churned up to the surface, where air chills it and makes it denser than the water below. As that water sinks, relatively warmer deep water of about 1 degree Celsius (34 F) replaces it, creating a feedback loop where ice can’t reform.

Under climate change, fresh water from melting glaciers and other sources will make the Southern Ocean’s surface layer less dense, which might mean fewer polynyas in the future. But the new study questions that assumption. Many models show that the winds circling Antarctica will become stronger and draw closer to the coast — the new paper suggests this would encourage more polynyas to form, not fewer.

Ethan Campbell (right) and Stephen Riser (second from left) view one of the SOCCOM monitoring instruments built at the UW and then released in the Southern Ocean, with UW alumnus Chanelle Cadot (far left), now at NOAA, and UW graduate student Rosalind Echols (second from left).Dennis Wise/University of Washington

These are the first observations to prove that even a smaller polynya like the one in 2016 moves water from the surface all the way to the deep ocean.

“Essentially it’s a flipping over of the entire ocean, rather than an injection of surface water on a one-way trip from the surface to the deep,” said co-author Earle Wilson, who recently completed his doctorate in oceanography at the UW.

One way that a surface polynya matters for the climate is for the deepest water in the oceans, known as Antarctic Bottom Water. This cold, dense water lurks below all the other water. Where and how it’s created affects its characteristics, and would have ripple effects on other major ocean currents.

“Right now people think most of the bottom water is forming on the Antarctic shelf, but these big offshore polynyas might have been more common in the past,” Riser said. “We need to improve our models so we can study this process, which could have larger-scale climate implications.”

Large and long-lasting polynyas can also affect the atmosphere, because deep water contains carbon from lifeforms that have sunk over centuries and dissolved on their way down. Once this water reaches the surface that carbon could be released.

“This deep reservoir of carbon has been locked away for hundreds of years, and in a polynya it might get ventilated at the surface through this really violent mixing,” Campbell said. “A large carbon outgassing event could really whack the climate system if it happened multiple years in a row.”

Other co-authors on the paper are Kent Moore at the University of Toronto, who was the 2016-17 Canada Fulbright Visiting Chair in Arctic Studies at the UW; Casey Brayton at the University of South Carolina; and Lynne Talley and Matthew Mazloff from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. SOCCOM is funded by the National Science Foundation. Campbell was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship program. Additional funding is from the NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Washington and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

###

For more information, contact Campbell at ethancc@uw.edu and 224-388-0301, Riser at riser@uw.edu and 206-543-1187 or Wilson at earlew@uw.edu.

NSF: PLR-1425989; NOAA: NA15OAR4320063

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington: “UW School of Oceanography ranks No. 1 in global ranking; more than two dozen areas in top 50”

From University of Washington

July 3, 2019
Jackson Holtz

The University of Washington’s School of Oceanography again is ranked No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2019. The ranking, released in June, was conducted by researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Other UW subjects in the top 10 include dentistry and oral sciences at No. 2, library and information sciences at No. 6, education at No. 9, geography at No. 7, biological sciences at No. 8 and public health at No. 5.

“The University of Washington is proud to be home to – and a destination for – the top scholars and most promising students in these essential fields of study. Our faculty, teachers and researchers are leading learning and discovery across the UW and we are grateful to be recognized for this important work,” said President Ana Mari Cauce.

The group ranked more than 4,000 universities around the world in 52 subjects across natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences.

In 2018, the UW was ranked No. 14 on the group’s annual Academic Ranking of World Universities list. This year’s university ranking has not yet been released.

Engineering

Biotechnology — No. 21
Computer science and engineering — No. 26
Environmental science and engineering — No. 27
Energy science and engineering — No. 30
Biomedical engineering — No. 32
Nanoscience and nanotechnology — No. 38
Civil engineering — No. 41

Life Sciences

Biological sciences — No. 8
Human biological sciences — No. 18

Medical Sciences

Dentistry and oral sciences — No. 2
Public health — No. 5
Clinical medicine — No. 13
Pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences technology — No. 13
Nursing — No. 15
Medical technology — No. 30

Natural Sciences

Oceanography — No. 1
Geography — No. 7
Atmospheric sciences — No. 15
Earth sciences — No. 15
Physics — No. 15
Ecology — No. 38
Math — No. 47

Social Sciences

Library and information science — No. 6
Education — No. 9
Finance — No. 11
Statistics — No. 19
Business administration — No. 22
Sociology — No. 25
Communication — No. 27
Psychology — No. 32
Management — No. 38
Public Administration — No. 45

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington: “People using third-party apps to analyze personal genetic data”

From University of Washington

June 13, 2019
Jackson Holtz

The burgeoning field of personal genetics appeals to people who want to learn more about themselves, their family and their propensity for diseases. More and more consumers are using services like 23andMe to learn about their genetic blueprint.

Included with most of these services is the ability for users to download their “raw” genetic data, which can be further analyzed using third-party apps. But little is known about how and why consumers are using these apps, or about a variety of potential risks associated with these apps — such as false positives about health information or unknowingly linking a family history to an unsolved crime.

“It’s the proverbial ‘wild West’ of genetic interpretation,” said Sarah Nelson, a University of Washington research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics who recently completed her doctorate in the School of Public Health. She’s the lead author of a new paper, “Third-party genetic interpretation tools: a mixed-methods study of consumer motivation and behavior,” that was published today in The American Journal of Human Genetics.

The team surveyed more than 1,000 people who had paid to obtain their genetic profile through a service like 23andMe or AncestryDNA. Most respondents reported that they downloaded data and went on to use a third-party application like Promethease or GEDmatch.

“We found that individuals who are initially motivated to learn about ancestry and genealogy frequently end up engaging with health interpretations of their genetic data, too. This has implications for the regulation of such testing and interpretation practices,” said S. Malia Fullerton, associate professor of bioethics and humanities, UW School of Medicine, and the senior author of the paper.

The study found that nearly all consumers who took the survey (89%) download their raw data and more than half of those who downloaded also used third-party tools (56%) to research both genealogical and ancestry information on third-party sites.

But third-party interpretation is largely unregulated and there are potential risks for consumers, Nelson said. And there are unanswered questions: What did you consent to? What do you think your data is going to be used for?

It’s often unclear what happens to the consumer data once it’s provided to a third-party tool. There are privacy risks, and even the chance that the genetic data may help law enforcement solve crimes. Researchers worry about accuracy, data privacy, reliability and the nation’s limited health resources.

False positives for health conditions can also cause emotional strain and put pressure on an already taxed health care system. People may find out about potentially serious diseases without much context or a support system.

On the other hand, third-party tools can also enable crowdsourced research and encourage people to learn about genetics.

Overall, Nelson is pleased that more people are taking an interest in genomics, but more research is needed on how people are using their information.

“We just had very little data on this,” Nelson said.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.

From University of Washington: “Mysterious holes in Antarctic sea ice explained by years of robotic data”

From University of Washington

June 10, 2019
Hannah Hickey

The hole in the sea ice offshore of the Antarctic coast as seen by a NASA satellite on Sept. 25, 2017.NASA Worldview/NASA Blue Marble

The winter ice on the surface of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea occasionally forms an enormous hole. A hole that appeared in 2016 and 2017 drew intense curiosity from scientists and reporters. Though even bigger gaps had formed decades before, this was the first time oceanographers had a chance to truly monitor the unexpected gap in Antarctic winter sea ice.

A new study led by the University of Washington combines satellite images of the sea ice cover, robotic drifters and even seals outfitted with sensors to better understand the phenomenon. The research explores why this hole appears in only some years, and what role it could play in the larger ocean circulation.

The study was published June 10 in the journal Nature.

“We thought this large hole in the sea ice — known as a polynya — was something that was rare, maybe a process that had gone extinct. But the events in 2016 and 2017 forced us to reevaluate that,” said lead author Ethan Campbell, a UW doctoral student in oceanography. “Observations show that the recent polynyas opened from a combination of factors — one being the unusual ocean conditions, and the other being a series of very intense storms that swirled over the Weddell Sea with almost hurricane-force winds.”

A “polynya,” a Russian word that roughly means “hole in the ice,” can form near shore as wind pushes the ice around. But it can also appear far from the coast and stick around for weeks to months, where it acts as an oasis for penguins, whales and seals to pop up and breathe.

Satellite images from Aug. 30, 2017 through Dec. 2, 2017 show the rarely-seen opening in the late Southern Hemisphere winter sea ice. The two plus signs show the location of oceanographic robots that were trapped in a spinning column of water above an underwater mountain known as Maud Rise.AMSR2-ASI/University of Bremen

This particular spot far from the Antarctic coast often has small openings and has seen large polynyas before. The biggest known polynyas at that location were in 1974, 1975 and 1976, just after the first satellites were launched, when an area the size of New Zealand remained ice-free through three consecutive Antarctic winters despite air temperatures far below freezing.

Campbell joined the UW as a graduate student in 2016 to better understand this mysterious phenomenon. In a stroke of scientific luck, a big one appeared for the first time in decades. A NASA satellite image in August 2016 drew public attention to a 33,000-square-kilometer (13,000-square-mile) gap that appeared for three weeks. An even bigger gap, of 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) appeared in September and October of 2017.

The Southern Ocean is thought to play a key role in global ocean currents and carbon cycles, but its behavior is poorly understood. It hosts some of the fiercest storms on the planet, with winds whipping uninterrupted around the continent in the 24-hour darkness of polar winter. The new study used observations from the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project, or SOCCOM, which puts out instruments that drift with the currents to monitor Antarctic conditions.

The study also used data from the long-running Argo ocean observing program, elephant seals that beam data back to shore, weather stations and decades of satellite images.

Ocean measurements were also collected by seals swimming under the sea ice with temporary satellite tags, showing normal water conditions in the years that did not have large polynyas.Dan Costa/University of California, Santa Cruz

“This study shows that this polynya is actually caused by a number of factors that all have to line up for it to happen,” said co-author Stephen Riser, a UW professor of oceanography. “In any given year you could have several of these things happen, but unless you get them all, then you don’t get a polynya.”

The study shows that when winds surrounding Antarctica draw closer to shore, they promote stronger upward mixing in the eastern Weddell Sea. In that region, an underwater mountain known as Maud Rise forces dense seawater around it and leaves a spinning vortex above. Two SOCCOM instruments were trapped in the vortex above Maud Rise and recorded years of observations there.

Analysis shows that when the surface ocean is especially salty, as seen throughout 2016, strong winter storms can set off an overturning circulation. Warmer, saltier water from the depths gets churned up to the surface, where air chills it and makes it denser than the water below. As that water sinks, relatively warmer deep water of about 1 degree Celsius (34 F) replaces it, creating a feedback loop where ice can’t reform.

Under climate change, fresh water from melting glaciers and other sources will make the Southern Ocean’s surface layer less dense, which might mean fewer polynyas in the future. But the new study questions that assumption. Many models show that the winds circling Antarctica will become stronger and draw closer to the coast — the new paper suggests this would encourage more polynyas to form, not fewer.

Ethan Campbell (right) and Stephen Riser (second from left) with one of the SOCCOM monitoring instruments built at the UW and then released in the Southern Ocean.Dennis Wise/University of Washington

These are the first observations to prove that even a smaller polynya like the one in 2016 moves water from the surface all the way to the deep ocean.

“Essentially it’s a flipping over of the entire ocean, rather than an injection of surface water on a one-way trip from the surface to the deep,” said co-author Earle Wilson, who recently completed his doctorate in oceanography at the UW.

One way that a surface polynya matters for the climate is for the deepest water in the oceans, known as Antarctic Bottom Water. This cold, dense water lurks below all the other water. Where and how it’s created affects its characteristics, and would have ripple effects on other major ocean currents.

“Right now people think most of the bottom water is forming on the Antarctic shelf, but these big offshore polynyas might have been more common in the past,” Riser said. “We need to improve our models so we can study this process, which could have larger-scale climate implications.”

Large and long-lasting polynyas can also affect the atmosphere, because deep water contains carbon from lifeforms that have sunk over centuries and dissolved on their way down. Once this water reaches the surface that carbon could be released.

“This deep reservoir of carbon has been locked away for hundreds of years, and in a polynya it might get ventilated at the surface through this really violent mixing,” Campbell said. “A large carbon outgassing event could really whack the climate system if it happened multiple years in a row.”

Other co-authors on the paper are Kent Moore at the University of Toronto, who was the 2016-17 Canada Fulbright Visiting Chair in Arctic Studies at the UW; Casey Brayton at the University of South Carolina; and Lynne Talley and Matthew Mazloff from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. SOCCOM is funded by the National Science Foundation. Campbell was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship program. Additional funding is from the NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Washington and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

For more information, contact Campbell at ethancc@uw.edu and 224-388-0301, Riser at riser@uw.edu and 206-543-1187 or Wilson at earlew@uw.edu.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Washington is one of the world’s preeminent public universities. Our impact on individuals, on our region, and on the world is profound — whether we are launching young people into a boundless future or confronting the grand challenges of our time through undaunted research and scholarship. Ranked number 10 in the world in Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and educating more than 54,000 students annually, our students and faculty work together to turn ideas into impact and in the process transform lives and our world. For more about our impact on the world, every day.
So what defines us —the students, faculty and community members at the University of Washington? Above all, it’s our belief in possibility and our unshakable optimism. It’s a connection to others, both near and far. It’s a hunger that pushes us to tackle challenges and pursue progress. It’s the conviction that together we can create a world of good. Join us on the journey.