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.听听

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 鈥渕ovement鈥� 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.听听

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Researchers shrink eye-catching structure down to the nano scale听

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 鈥� examples include and the that help living cells maintain their shape 鈥� 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 鈥� 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 .听

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 couldn鈥檛 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 .

Over the past decade, cities around the world have increasingly turned to nature-based infrastructure to become more resilient in the face of a changing climate. Urban forests provide shade during heat waves and improve air quality; wetlands filter stormwater and reduce flooding; and restored oyster reefs filter water, create habitat and reduce wave energy along shorelines. When carefully designed and managed, these 鈥渘ature-based solutions鈥� can support climate adaptation, biodiversity and public health.

There鈥檚 a catch, however: Living things are not static building materials. They evolve and adapt in response to changing conditions, sometimes in unpredictable ways. As the climate shifts, the natural systems that humans depend on shift too.听

, professor of urban design and planning at the 天美影视传媒, studies how cities and nature influence one another. in Science, Alberti and collaborators explore how evolutionary change can affect the long-term performance of nature-based solutions.

UW News spoke with Alberti about what鈥檚 at stake and how city planners can work with evolution rather than simply reacting to it.

Why did you want to study evolution within nature-based solutions?

MA: Today, an increasing share of infrastructure investment is going to nature-based solutions because they can cost-effectively reduce climate-driven risks to cities while supporting biodiversity, public health and climate adaptation. However, their long-term performance depends on a fundamental biological process that is still rarely considered in design: evolution. These systems are not static infrastructure. They depend on living organisms 鈥� plants, microbes, oysters, corals and others 鈥� whose traits can shift over time as urban environments change. Cities expose these organisms to heat, drought, flooding, pollution, nutrient enrichment, disease, habitat fragmentation and new species interactions. Those pressures influence which organisms survive, reproduce and continue providing the ecological functions that cities rely on. Over time, ecological and evolutionary responses may alter the very processes that allow these systems to cool neighborhoods, filter water, stabilize shorelines or reduce wave energy.

So the central question is not simply whether a project works on day one. It is whether it can continue to perform as the organisms within it respond to climate stress, urban pressures and the intervention itself.

The problem is that implementation of nature-based solutions is outpacing the science needed to evaluate long-term performance. For these solutions to serve as resilient infrastructure, they must be designed as living, dynamic, evolving systems.

Did you find examples where evolutionary change can affect infrastructure performance?

MA: We found examples showing that evolutionary change can affect traits directly linked to the performance of nature-based solutions. Urban or climate pressures can favor traits that alter the processes these systems rely on, affecting their ability to deliver intended functions.

For example, coastal marsh plants such as are used to stabilize sediment, reduce erosion and help buffer waves. In marshes exposed to excess nutrients from sources such as fertilizer runoff, wastewater, stormwater and upstream land use, however, Spartina can shift biomass allocation toward shoots and away from roots. This shift can reduce the sediment-stabilization function that restoration projects depend on.

In another example, urban tree populations may evolve greater drought tolerance to help them survive hotter and drier periods. But evolutionary responses that improve survival do not necessarily preserve the desired functions for cities. Those trees may persist but grow more slowly or produce less canopy, which could in turn reduce shade, carbon uptake or pollutant removal.

When can evolution strengthen nature-based solutions?

MA: Evolution can strengthen nature-based solutions when populations have enough variation in traits to help them survive and retain their function under changing conditions. Coral reefs are a great example of this. Corals build reef structure, support biodiversity, store carbon and help reduce wave energy along shorelines. and functional decline. To increase their resilience, researchers are testing assisted-evolution approaches, . On the Great Barrier Reef, this includes selecting corals that maintain photosynthetic performance and stable symbiotic relationships under heat stress.

These approaches could help sustain reef-based coastal protection as oceans warm, but they also carry risks, including reduced genetic diversity, tradeoffs with other functions and uncertain responses to future conditions.

Oyster reefs show the same principle in another coastal system. filter water, create habitat, support fisheries and build reef structures that reduce wave energy. They face disease, warming, acidification, and low oxygen. Selective breeding and genomic tools can help identify oyster lines better suited to these conditions, but restoration efforts should avoid narrowing genetic diversity. Genetically diverse, site-appropriate stocks are more likely to maintain the functions that coastal communities value.

What were your biggest takeaways from reviewing the available research?

MA: The key lesson is that nature-based solutions are not static assets. Their performance depends on ecological and evolutionary processes that continue after design and deployment.

A second lesson is that context matters. In urban environments, environmental factors, such as temperature, pollution, hydrology and soil conditions, can vary across neighborhoods, blocks and shoreline segments. The same species or design may therefore perform differently in different parts of a city.

Third, variation is central to resilience. Genetic diversity, trait diversity and community diversity can increase the capacity of a system to respond to changing conditions.

Fourth, current adaptation does not guarantee future performance. Populations of organisms in long-urbanized environments may be adapted to present conditions, but those adaptations may not align with future climates.

Finally, a reminder and a caution: Evolution does not necessarily favor the traits that make species effective nature-based solutions. Traits that help organisms persist under urban stress may not be the same traits that support cooling, water filtration, shoreline protection or habitat formation. The challenge for planners is to design and manage these systems so that survival and function remain aligned over time.

What steps can urban designers and planners take?

MA: Planners should design for long-term performance. That means asking: Which organisms provide the desired function? Which traits matter for that function? What environmental pressures will those organisms face? Is there enough genetic, trait or species variation to support future adaptations?

In practice, this means using diverse, site-appropriate source material and considering both local adaptation and future climate conditions. It also means reducing pressures that can weaken performance, such as excess nutrients, contaminants and pollution, while maintaining the habitat conditions organisms need to persist and adapt over time.

It also means monitoring differently. Cities should track not only whether a project is working now, but also whether the organisms, traits and ecological processes that support its performance are changing over time.听

Designing nature-based solutions for changing climate conditions requires sustaining genetic diversity, supporting ecological function and maintaining evolutionary potential.

UW co-authors include , a doctoral student of urban design and planning. A complete list of co-authors is .

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Marina Alberti at malberti@uw.edu.

础濒补蝉办补鈥檚 was home to beluga whales in the late 1970s, but today the population hovers around 300. Despite almost two decades of recovery work, the whales aren鈥檛 bouncing back. The Cook Inlet belugas are likely struggling under multiple pressures, including increasing human noise. Researchers are working on deciphering whale-whale communication to better account for the impact of noise on this vulnerable population.

In a new study, 天美影视传媒 scientists eavesdropped on Cook Inlet belugas, recording more than 1,700 calls representing 21 different behavioral encounters. This work builds on a 2023 study showing that noise from commercial shipping, the primary industry in the region, masks common beluga calls. Although many marine mammals rely more on sound than sight, our understanding of acoustic communication among these animals is limited.

Beluga whales use vocalizations to socialize, stick together and avoid danger. The new study, , investigated the behavioral, social and environmental contexts in which the whales produce various calls.

鈥淲e knew that human-generated noise was masking their calls, but we didn’t know what those calls were used for,鈥� said, a UW doctoral student in aquatic and fishery sciences. 鈥淭his study gave us important insights into the world of beluga communication and how it is disrupted by industry and development.鈥�

They found that Cook Inlet belugas use a specific type of call 鈥� a combined call 鈥� when calves are present. Combined calls were one of the call types that got drowned out by shipping noise in the 2023 study, suggesting that shipping noise could be disrupting communication with calves. If mothers and calves can鈥檛 remain in contact, it could spell trouble for the young whales.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have the data to directly connect noise and calf separation,鈥� Brewer said, 鈥渂ut if a mother whale can鈥檛 acoustically keep in contact with her calf, that could be a huge problem.鈥�.

Researchers also found that calling between whales increased right before a behavioral change in the group, such as a transition from socializing to traveling, and when the tide was coming in. The call rate for individual whales decreased as group size increased, suggesting that individuals call less in a big group, perhaps to avoid talking over each other.

In Cook Inlet, where the whales live year round, silty glacial water gets churned up by powerful currents and dramatic tides. Beluga whales likely moved in after the last ice age, roughly 10,000 years ago. Vocal communication and echolocation, a navigational strategy used by bats and some whales, have allowed them to survive in this extreme environment, but human noise presents a newer challenge.

鈥淭heir main foraging hot spots for salmon are in the northern part of the inlet, near Anchorage, and in close proximity to the airport, the Port of Alaska, and the military base. I think there are ways to adapt but it鈥檚 tricky for them and noise pollution is far from the only threat,鈥� Brewer said.

Beluga whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary in Eastern Canada 鈥� also very noisy 鈥� have evolved to , perhaps in response to lower frequency anthropogenic noise. They also make their when it’s noisy, just like two people conversing at a party would.

In the Puget Sound region, where the endangered Southern Resident killer whales live, when whales are reported in the area. Smaller ships are legally required to keep their distance and slow down within half a mile of the whales. This program was introduced after researchers demonstrated that .

鈥淭he Port of Alaska could explore similar strategies to mitigate the impact of industry,鈥� Brewer said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 halt shipping, but we鈥檙e trying to understand what we can do to manage these critical habitats, especially when the animals are nearby.鈥�

Co-authors include , a UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences;听 , a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences; , a UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences; , a research scientist in the UW Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies; of NOAA; Christopher Garner and Andrea Gilstad of the Air Force Conservation Department.

This study was funded by UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies under a NOAA Cooperative Agreement, and the H. Mason Keeler Endowed Professorship in Sports Fisheries Management.

For more information, contact Brewer at arialb@uw.edu.听 听

In early April, a powerful typhoon formed over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, as it swirled toward the Mariana Islands, a 15-island archipelago east of the Philippines. By the time it on April 14, the wind was gusting 130 miles per hour, rain fell in sheets and huge waves pounded the shores.

This super typhoon, called Typhoon Sinlaku, was among the strongest early-season storms recorded in the past 75 years. It caused widespread damage on the islands 鈥� home to approximately 50,000 people 鈥� leaving most without power, tearing roofs off homes and destroying vital infrastructure.

The U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or CNMI, includes 14 of the islands in the archipelago and the remaining island, Guam, is a U.S. territory. The residents, a mix of Indigenous Chamorro people and settlers, are American citizens and U.S. institutions and agencies are well represented on the islands.

On Rota, 天美影视传媒 researchers have been working to stabilize the population of the endangered Mariana crow for decades after research signaled rapid decline. , a UW professor of environmental and forest sciences, and , a UW professor of environmental and forest sciences, oversee several projects on Tinian, a small forested island roughly 12 miles long and 6 miles wide.

The first project, launched in 2021, focused on a small, formerly endangered songbird called the . It has since expanded into broader study of native birds and plant restoration.

UW News spoke with Gardner, , a research scientist in Gardner鈥檚 lab, and , a graduate student in Bakker鈥檚 lab, about the impacts of the typhoon and how they plan to resume their work on the islands.

What first brought you to Tinian? What makes the island unique?

Beth Gardner: We were initially approached by a consulting firm with a contract to study the Tinian monarch, which led us to form a relationship with the U.S. Navy based on the island. They were impressed by our work and efforts to integrate into the community and funded our group to continue developing research on Tinian.

Kaeli Swift: Tinian鈥檚 unique ecological character reflects its complicated history. The island is about 60% forested but the forests are primarily composed of a mix of introduced species. Centuries of colonization 鈥� by the Spanish, Germans, Japanese and now U.S. 鈥� has resulted in immense habitat destruction. Tinian was heavily bombed during World War II and then became the U.S. point for the atomic bomb.

Fletcher Moore: By the end of the war, over 95% of the forest had been cleared, obviously to the extreme detriment of all the native plants and animals. Now, over two-thirds of the island is controlled in a lease agreement by the U.S. military. That land is largely undeveloped, but the U.S. military plans to invest in major new projects on Tinian in the next decade.

What does your work involve?

KS: We have been doing on Tinian for five years. We鈥檙e trying to understand threats to native birds by studying offspring survival and predator populations 鈥� primarily rats and cats. Our recent work involves acoustic monitoring, specifically looking at how birds are impacted by human-related noise associated with development on the island.

FM: We are working on a long-term native forest restoration project based on the observation that the lack of native plants was limiting wildlife populations on Tinian. We are supporting development of a native plant nursery by partnering with local entities to enhance the space, hire full time staff, and collect and propagate plants. We had about 2,000 native trees representing 20 different species in the nursery, and planted about 300 of those trees in the past six months.

How will it be impacted by Typhoon Sinlaku?

FM: The site where we planted the young trees is on an isolated corner of the island that is difficult to get to in the best of times. Right now, the road is totally inaccessible. We鈥檙e not sure when we will be able to get out there to assess the damage and resume regular restoration work, like controlling invasive species and planting other species. The nursery also suffered a lot of damage; almost half of its plants were destroyed. So it’s going to require a pretty big reset.

KS: Our work involves venturing into the jungle to set up cameras and acoustic recording devices for monitoring birds. Our access to those sites will be limited until the roads are cleared and even then, the nature of the vegetative landscape will have changed. We can鈥檛 really compare data on birds from one year to the next when there have been major changes to vegetation on the island.

BG: That little songbird we study has probably gone quiet for now. As we鈥檝e seen in the past, their populations will likely suffer from this type of devastation. The typhoon sat on top of Tinian and Saipan for somewhere around 50 hours. We don鈥檛 know the full extent of the damage yet, but I think things will be completely different when we get back out there.

What happens now?

FM: It is difficult to access resources on the Marianas and especially hard on Tinian. We had to transport everything we needed for these projects from elsewhere. Shipping can take weeks or months and building materials are often twice as expensive as they would be on the mainland U.S.

When it comes to our work, it’s really difficult to see the nursery destroyed and to see the materials we spent months and a lot of money gathering torn apart. But, it’s going to be especially hard for the people who live on the island and don鈥檛 have grants funding their rebuilding efforts. So there are just a lot of practical challenges to recovery out there that even folks affected by disasters in the mainland U.S. might not face to the same degree.

Some Alaska cruises are to this year after a landslide-generated tsunami barreled through the narrow channel during peak season last August. A new analysis of the event from researchers at the University of Calgary and the 天美影视传媒, , describes how glacial retreat caused by global warming primed the fjord for the colossal wave and what, if any, warning signs preceded it.

At 5:26 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2025, a piece of the mountainside one kilometer tall and 200 meters thick collapsed into the Tracy Arm Fjord, a scenic waterway south of Juneau. Rock crashed into the water, taking with it chunks of the South Sawyer glacier and producing a 481-meter high tsunami so powerful that it scraped surrounding hillsides bare.

The event would have been “unsurvivable for any ship of any size,鈥� said co-author a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, but fortunately the tsunami occurred too early for tours and no one was harmed.

Later that day, as many as 20 boats, including large cruise ships, may have visited the fjord. Tourist vessels often draw near the fjord wall to get the best vantage point for photographs of towering glaciers and mountains. The slope that failed was only recently exposed to the water below it due to glacial retreat.

鈥淚t was only in the last few years that the glacier retreated back past the bottom of where the hillside failed,鈥� Roe said.

Tracy Arm Fjord hosts two glaciers, the Sawyer and South Sawyer, which both stem from the , a frozen expanse spanning the Alaska-British Columbia border. The larger South Sawyer glacier terminates in the water, making it a tidewater glacier, while the Sawyer retreated onto land in 2023.

Satellite observations indicate that the ice has retreated nearly 10 kilometers since the beginning of the industrial era, with the pace accelerating after 2000.

Mapping the change in position and mass of a tidewater glacier can be difficult because they shrink in multiple directions. Exposed ice melts in the sun and chunks break off and fall into the water at the glacial front. Glaciers around the world have been retreating in response to global warming, but tidewater glaciers don鈥檛 always follow general trends.

To understand the link between global warming and the 2025 tsunami, researchers used a computational method developed by Roe and , a UW research scientist in Earth and space sciences. Their approach combines hundreds of simulations from various computer models to estimate how different certain climates would look without human influence.

鈥淲ith these data, we can quantify how unusual the observations are compared to the expected natural variability in the climate had we not been burning fossil fuels,鈥� Berdahl said.

In the study, they conclude that 100% of the industrial-era warming in this region of Alaska is human-caused. As it gets warmer, less snow accumulates and the ice retreats.

鈥淪nowline elevations are rising, ice is thinning, and the ice cap is shrinking. Even though tidewater glaciers can be more complicated to study, we are fully confident that the retreat is primarily due to the changing environment, and we are the cause of the changing environment,鈥� Roe said.

It is possible that glacial retreat destabilized the slope that failed, but specific landslide triggers are notoriously difficult to discern. Either way, if the surface beneath the slope had been glacial ice, the slide wouldn鈥檛 have produced such a massive tsunami.

Although no one was harmed by the wave, those nearby raised the alarm. Kayakers awoke early in the morning to water flowing past their tents and carrying away some of their gear. A cruise ship anchored near the mouth of the fjord described large waves rolling through and shifting currents. These reports allowed researchers to triangulate the landslide, but the authors say there were very few advance warning signs.

鈥淣ormally with these gigantic rock avalanches, they often give some sort of warning signs in the weeks, months or years prior when the slope is slowly moving down the mountain. It鈥檚 sagging and then it catastrophically gives way in a rock avalanche,鈥� said lead author , associate professor of Earth, energy and environment at the University of Calgary. 鈥淚n this case, that didn鈥檛 happen.鈥�

The researchers did note an increase in low frequency seismic noise before the landslide.

鈥淭he long precursory phase of seismic activity before the landslide is fascinating, and to my knowledge, rarely observed,鈥� said , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. 鈥淕iven its duration and the relative ease of detection, this type of signal could conceivably provide advance warning of large slides if enough seismic monitoring can be deployed.鈥�

Until that happens though, it will be difficult to predict the behavior of changing terrain.

The unexpected event presents challenges when it comes to disaster reduction in high-risk areas, Shugar said. Cruise ship companies, captains and other stakeholders should pay close attention, particularly in areas on the West Coast and in polar regions where glaciers are thinning due to the changing climate.

This study was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Alberta Innovates, Canadian Space Agency, U.S. Geological Survey Landslide Hazards Program, the U.S. National Science Foundation, NERC, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Foundation, and the Carlsberg Foundation.

This story was adapted from

For more information, contact Roe at groe@uw.edu.听

Sunbirds may look similar to hummingbirds 鈥� small, iridescent birds with thin bills 鈥� 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 天美影视传媒 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 鈥� including high-speed video of sunbirds drinking red-dyed nectar from transparent artificial flowers 鈥� 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.听听

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

Seattle Fault gets 5,000 more years of sleep听

Just over 1,100 years ago an on the Seattle fault rocked 鈥� and reshaped 鈥� 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 doesn鈥檛 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 鈥榠mminent impactor鈥� asteroids

Small asteroids 鈥� those 1 to 20 meters in diameter 鈥斕� hit the Earth 35-40 times per year, though they鈥檙e 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 鈥� concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere 鈥� 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 Juri膰, 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 weren鈥檛 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.听

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

The Ecological Society of America on Wednesday awards. , a 天美影视传媒 assistant professor of environmental and forest science, was named an Early Career Fellow, which recognizes scientists for contributions to advancing and applying ecological knowledge within eight years of completing a doctorate.

Willing studies how microbes respond, and help plants cope with, environmental change. focuses on fungi and other microbes living near plant roots. Much like the gut microbiome, these communities play a critical role in plant nutrition, immune function and overall forest health.

Willing鈥檚 lab focuses on understanding these communities and how they are shifting with climate change. Her research integrates methods from various scientific disciplines to gain insight into the ecosystem-wide impact of fungi.

鈥淚 work across pretty diverse fields, from fungal ecology to plant and forest ecology,鈥� Willing said. 鈥淚ntegrating everything together is challenging, but I think it’s a critical intersection to study right now and this award is a nice acknowledgement of that.鈥�

As a Faculty Fellow, Willing also collaborates with federal, state and tribal agencies to incorporate fungi into climate adaptation planning.

Many of her lab鈥檚 projects examine responses to climate change. For example, one of Willing鈥檚 current grad students is studying fungi in post-fire ecosystems.

Some fungal groups are fire-adapted, meaning that they can withstand wildfire better than others. After wildfire, the soil often becomes hydrophobic, which causes water to run off the surface instead of soaking in. This increases the risk of erosion, among other consequences. Fungi help seedlings to establish and stabilize the soil by helping it retain water.

Early findings from her lab indicate that prolonged fire suppression, a stewardship strategy intended to minimize wildfire impacts, can limit microorganisms fire tolerance, which then exacerbates the damage caused by a fire.

鈥淭here are lots of different nuances that we鈥檙e really just starting to understand,鈥� Willing said.

She hopes this work can help inform future forest management practices. Although there are many mushroom enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest, Willing is one of few scientists in the region studying how these organisms fold into broader ecosystems.

Most of the data on microbial communities was collected within the past 20 years or so, which makes it difficult to gauge how these organisms are responding to climate change. Another project in Willing鈥檚 lab involves conducting genetic analyses on preserved plant specimens to establish a baseline for fungal health.

鈥淥ur understanding of what fungal and bacterial communities were like before the onset of rapid warming is really limited,鈥� Willing said.

Building this baseline will help researchers see how microbial communities are evolving and reveal management opportunities.

Without fungi, life on Earth couldn鈥檛 exist as we know it. Dead logs and fallen leaves would simply accumulate, with nothing to break them down and return their nutrients to the soil.

鈥淔ungi are involved in everything,鈥� Willing said. 鈥淚n the cycle of life, they are at the beginning, helping plants to take root across every ecosystem on Earth, and at the end, helping to create lush soils for future life to flourish.鈥�

ESA will acknowledge and celebrate fellows during a ceremony on July 27 at the annual meeting in Salt Lake City. Early Career Fellows are elected for five years.

For more information about her work, contact Willing at willingc@uw.edu.

Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from 天美影视传媒. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth鈥檚 oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface.

Scientists believe that there are billions of planets outside our solar system. More than are confirmed, but only some of them are candidates for life. The search for life has focused on planets in the 鈥�,鈥� a sweet spot that is neither too close nor too far from a central star. Planets in this zone are considered viable because they can maintain liquid surface water.

鈥淲hen you are searching for life in the broad landscape of the universe with limited resources, you have to filter out some planets,鈥� said lead author , a UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences.

Water, although essential, does not guarantee the existence of life. With this study, researchers worked to further narrow the search by investigating planets with just a small amount of water.

鈥淲e were interested in arid planets with very limited surface water inventory 鈥� far less than one Earth ocean. Many of these planets are in the habitable zone of their star, but we weren’t sure if they could actually be habitable,鈥� White-Gianella said.

The team鈥檚 results, , show that habitability hinges on the geologic carbon cycle 鈥� a water-driven process that exchanges carbon between the atmosphere and interior over millions of years, stabilizing surface temperatures.

Carbon dioxide, which comes from volcanoes in a natural system, accumulates in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth dissolved in rainwater. Rain erodes and chemically reacts with rocks on the Earth鈥檚 surface and runoff transports carbon to the ocean, where it sinks to the seafloor. Plate tectonics drives carbon-rich oceanic plates below continental land. Millions of years later, carbon resurfaces as mountains form.

If water levels drop too low for rainfall, carbon removal 鈥� from weathering 鈥� can鈥檛 keep up with emissions from volcanic eruptions and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere spike, trapping water. Rising temperatures evaporate the remaining surface water, initiating runaway warming that makes the planet too hot to support life.

鈥淪o that unfortunately makes these arid planets within habitable zones unlikely to be good candidates for life,鈥� White-Gianella said.

Although scientists have instruments that can measure surface water, rocky exoplanets are difficult to observe directly. In this study, the researchers ran a series of complex simulations to better understand how water might behave in these desert worlds.

Previous efforts to model the carbon cycle focused on cooler, perhaps wetter planets. The models factored in evaporation from sunlight, but didn鈥檛 include other drivers, such as wind. White-Gianella adapted existing models to drier planets by refining evaporation and precipitation estimates.

鈥淭hese sophisticated, mechanistic models of the carbon cycle have emerged from people trying to understand how Earth鈥檚 thermostat has worked 鈥� or hasn鈥檛 鈥� to regulate temperature through time,鈥� said senior author , a UW assistant professor of Earth and space sciences.

However, the function of the geologic carbon cycle on arid planets was largely unexplored. The results show that even planets that form with surface water could lose it, transitioning from potentially habitable to uninhabitable due to carbon cycle disruption.

One such planet exists far closer to home: Venus. The planet of love is roughly the same size as Earth, likely formed around the same time and may have started with a similar amount of water.

Yet today, the surface of Venus rivals the temperature of a wood-fired pizza oven. Standing on the surface would feel like being crushed by 10 blue whales, White-Gianella said.

Many theories attempt to explain why Earth and Venus are so different. White-Gianella and Krissanen-Totton propose that Venus, being closer to the sun, may have formed with slightly less water than Earth, which imbalanced the geologic carbon cycle. As surface temperatures rose with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, Venus lost its water 鈥� and any life it may have hosted.

Upcoming missions to Venus will attempt to understand what happened to the planet and whether it ever hosted life. The findings could also offer insight into planets much farther away.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very unlikely that we will land something on the surface of an exoplanet in our lifetime, but Venus 鈥� our nextdoor neighbor 鈥� is arguably the best exoplanet analog,鈥� White-Gianella said.

The researchers hope that results from future missions will help validate the results of their modeling.

鈥淭his has implications for a lot of the potentially habitable real estate out there,鈥� Krissanen-Totton said.

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the NASA Astrobiology Program and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

For more information, contact White-Gianella at hasktw@uw.edu or Krissanen-Totton at joshkt@uw.edu.听

New evidence suggests that a disease-causing tapeworm that has been spreading across the United States and Canada has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The tapeworm, called Echinococcus multilocularis, lives as a parasite in coyotes, foxes and other canid species and can cause severe disease if passed to domestic dogs or humans.

E. multilocularis has long been recognized as a public health threat in parts of the Northern hemisphere, including Europe and Asia, but was considered extremely rare in North America until approximately 15 years ago, when cases in humans and dogs began cropping up in Canada and the midwestern U.S., indicating that the parasite was spreading.

This study, led by 天美影视传媒 researchers, is the first to detect E. multilocularis in a wild host on the west coast of the contiguous U.S. Researchers surveyed 100 coyotes in the Puget Sound region, and found E. multilocularis in 37 of them. The results were .

鈥淭his parasite is concerning because it has been spreading across North America. There have been numerous cases of dogs getting sick, and a handful of people have also picked up the tapeworm,” said lead author , who recently graduated from the UW with a doctorate in environmental and forest science. “The fact that we found it here in one-third of our coyotes was surprising, because it wasn鈥檛 found anywhere in the Pacific Northwest until earlier this year.鈥�

When E. multilocularis infects an animal or person, it causes cancer-like cysts to form in the liver and sometimes other organs. If untreated, infection can be fatal.

However, not all carriers become sick. E. multilocularis has a complex life cycle that involves multiple hosts. Canids, which host adult parasites, can support thousands of worms in their intestines without becoming sick. The worms shed eggs that are then passed in their feces.

Rodents 鈥� another host 鈥� become infected by eating food contaminated with coyote feces. Once consumed, the parasite eggs migrate to the liver and form cysts, ultimately weakening or killing the rodents. The parasite鈥檚 life cycle begins again when coyotes prey upon infected rodents.

Humans and domestic dogs are categorized as accidental hosts. Humans may pick up the parasite by consuming tapeworm eggs 鈥� in food that is contaminated with coyote or dog feces, for example 鈥� and can develop a disease called , characterized by slow-growing metastatic cysts. Symptoms may not appear for five to 15 years after exposure, which complicates diagnosis and treatment.

Alveolar echinococcosis is considered the third most important food-borne illness globally, and one of the top 20 neglected tropical diseases by the World Health Organization. Many countries have developed robust protocols for tracking it.

Domestic dogs that are exposed to E. multilocularis may or may not become sick, depending on where the parasite is in its life cycle at exposure. It is more common for dogs to carry the parasite and shed eggs without developing disease, but dogs that are exposed to parasite eggs may develop the same cancer-like cysts as other infected animals.

鈥淭o minimize the risk of dogs getting infected with E. multilocularis, owners should not let them prey on rodents or scavenge their carcasses,鈥� said co-author , an associate professor and director of the Parasitology Diagnostic Laboratory at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Owners can also give dogs preventative medication for worms and ticks and ensure routine veterinary care, which should include diagnostic tests for parasites, Verocai said.

Although the researchers found E. multilocularis in more than one-third of local coyotes tested, there is little evidence of the infection spreading to other hosts. One study in Washington, Oregon and Idaho since 2023, five of which were in Washington. Few human cases have been reported in the U.S., and none on the West Coast.

鈥淭he reason that it’s so high in coyotes is because they are regularly eating raw rodents, and that is the primary way for them to get infected. Most domestic dogs are not eating the raw livers of wild rodents,鈥� Hentati said.

Before the uptick in the 2010s, there were several reports of E. multilocularis on remote islands in northwestern Alaska. Those cases were caused by a parasite with different origins than the current outbreak. Genetic analysis pins the earlier cases to a tundra variant while these recent cases are driven by a more infectious variant with European origins. The coyotes in this study carried the newer variant, now thought to be the predominant variant in the U.S. and Canada.

Neither Canada nor the U.S. require dogs to undergo deworming upon arrival, which may explain the spread. Previous studies also proposed that E. multilocularis could have come over in red foxes imported for hunting 100 years ago, but no one knows for sure.

鈥�The main takeaway is that Echinococcus multilocularis is here, it’s pretty prevalent in the local coyote population and people should be aware of potential risks,鈥� Hentati said.

Co-authors include , lab manager at UW; , UW doctoral graduate in environmental and forest science; , a UW professor of environmental and forest science; , a UW associate professor of aquatic and fishery science; of the College of William and Mary; Erika Miller of Sound Data Management; of DePaul University; and of UC Berkeley. This study was funded by The National Science Foundation and the 天美影视传媒 Hall Conservation Genetics Fund.

For more information, contact Hentati at yhentati26@gmail.com.

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 UW鈥檚 , 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 mussels鈥� 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 world鈥檚 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 鈥� first swimming and releasing compounds that damage the diatom and then clustering around them to feed. Bacteria can also overcome the diatom鈥檚 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 .