Swarms of jellies have been seen more frequently in Puget Sound over the past several decades, and some biologists speculate these fast-growing jellyfish will do especially well in the warmer oceans of the future.

Moon jellies, or Aurelia labiata, are unique among the various jellyfish species inhabiting Puget Sound in that they form vast blooms. When populations spike, they can take over a single bay 鈥� creating a dramatic sight.

天美影视传媒-led research suggests moon jellies are feasting on zooplankton, the various tiny animals that drift with the currents, in the bays they inhabit. This could affect other hungry marine life, like juvenile salmon or herring 鈥� especially if predictions are correct and climate change will favor fast-growing jellyfish.

The team, which included researchers at Highline College, Western Washington University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this work March 2 as a poster at the Ocean Sciences Meeting.

鈥淭hese aggregations can contain thousands to millions of individuals, and they can cover a broad range of space,鈥� said lead author , a UW graduate student in oceanography. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of really amazing to see these aggregations when you run into them, oftentimes in protected bays.鈥�

Team member Correigh Greene at NOAA鈥檚 Northwest Fisheries Science Center has for more than a decade. Many species are becoming more common, he鈥檚 found, thriving in the warmer water seen in 2015 and expected in the future.

鈥淲hy are the jellyfish increasing? And if the moon jellies are increasing, what are their impacts on the ecosystem in Puget Sound?,鈥� said , a UW professor of oceanography.

Through field sampling and lab experiments, the new study suggests that population blooms of moon jellies could have significant local effects on the base of the marine food web.

The team took water samples from Quartermaster Harbor on Vashon Island and Sinclair Inlet, south of Bremerton, during moon jelly population spikes late each summer of 2019, 2020 and 2021. In collaboration with the Squaxin Tribe, they also sampled water at two South Puget Sound hotspots for moon jellies: Budd and Eld inlets.

Water samples taken during moon jelly population spikes in Quartermaster Harbor and Sinclair Inlet during the last three summers showed that levels of zooplankton 鈥� especially 鈥� were dramatically lower inside the moon jelly aggregations. The average copepod densities were as much as 73% lower within aggregations than in other parts of the bay.

鈥淭his strongly suggests to us that the moon jellies are feeding on the copepods inside the aggregations, depleting their populations,鈥� Schultz said.

The team also conducted an experiment at Highline College鈥檚 MAST Center in the summers of 2019 and 2020. They placed different numbers of moon jellies in 10 large tanks filled with local seawater and zooplankton. When researchers measured the zooplankton levels two hours later, the copepod levels had dropped by as much as 75% in the tank containing the most moon jellies.

鈥淲hen we pair those two results, we get an idea that the jellyfish in Puget Sound are able to eat a lot of copepods, and that they might be altering the zooplankton population in these embayments,鈥� Keister said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have any rates yet for the field, but from what we observed in the experiments, the moon jellies are clearly preying on those copepods at a very fast rate.鈥�

The researchers are still analyzing their data. Eventually they hope to establish the moon jellies鈥� feeding rates and incorporate that into an ecosystem model of Puget Sound that predicts how various populations will fare depending on the environmental conditions.

This research was funded by Washington Sea Grant. Other members of the team are Kathryn Sobocinski at Western Washington University and Rus Higley at Highline College.

For more information, contact Schultz at schulh2@uw.edu or Keister at jkeister@uw.edu.

Headed into her final year of law school, Mary Ruffin had planned to spend the summer at a private law firm, where she had secured an internship 鈥� a near rite of passage, among law students, to future employment.

But the internship, for college students in so many industries, was put on hold, the victim of the COVID-19 economy that has left millions out of work nationwide.

Yet Ruffin was undeterred, and she started reaching out to fellow students, faculty, alumni and attorneys to see what might be available 鈥� any kind of legal research or project to keep her skills sharp and her resume competitive.

In the meantime, faculty and administrators with the 天美影视传媒 School of Law were working with local law firms to find solutions for the dozens of students in need of the professional development experience that defines the summers between years of law school and often leads to a full-time job. Together, they came up with the COVID-19 Clearinghouse, a collection of short-term, remote, pro bono projects for private firms and nonprofits that mainly address legal questions specific to life during the pandemic. And through the Clearinghouse, Ruffin received her first assignment for a client: researching employment laws for essential workers and their families.

鈥淎 lot of students go into law school because law can have a profound impact on people鈥檚 lives,鈥� Ruffin said. 鈥淭his seemed like a really good use of our time, when things are constantly changing, and it鈥檚 good for students to get involved and feel like we鈥檙e part of a community.鈥�

The COVID-19 Clearinghouse is just one of the ways that faculty and staff across the UW have revamped summer research internships and worked with outside partners and employers to involve students in a remote working environment, even for jobs that would normally be out in the field.

Bringing the outside in

Transforming what are usually outdoor or in-the-lab tasks has required creativity. Just ask almost anyone in the College of the Environment.

The Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean鈥檚 nine-week research internship program accepts about a dozen undergraduates from around the country. Students are paired with a project that鈥檚 meant to match their interests, either on the UW campus with a faculty member, or at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices in Seattle. The cohort is housed in UW residence halls, participates in regular activities and goes on the occasional field trip.

Not this year. All 10 interns will work remotely, some on projects that were reconfigured to be online, and a few who agreed to take a remote project that was completely different from what program administrator Jed Thompson would have offered, pre-pandemic.

Gone, for example, is any assignment involving the always-popular 鈥渟hip time.鈥� But time on the computer provides valuable skills, too, useful for oceanography and so many other science fields.

Both and , faculty in the School of Oceanography, have converted internships that would otherwise have been out on the water or inside in the lab. Instead of examining zooplankton for Keister or using mass spectrometers to measure metals in water for Bundy, the interns will analyze data from previously obtained samples, learning new computer programs and other means of identification and measurement.

Elsewhere in the College of the Environment, Washington Sea Grant鈥檚 science communication fellow would normally spend much of their time bringing safety and water-quality messages directly to the people 鈥� literally, surveying boaters, promoting education at festivals and sharing materials at docks and marinas. But until lockdown restrictions loosen significantly, assistant director for communications MaryAnn Wagner said, the fellowship is steering toward writing and social media: from press releases about marine debris disposal and pump-out stations, to tweets of recipes and sea-life trivia.

Adapting alongside employers

Many internships and practicum experiences rely on other partners and agencies. And as the reality of the pandemic and remote working arrangements became clear, UW faculty and staff started contacting their usual job sites to determine what, if anything, could be modified.

The Program on the Environment requires its environmental studies majors to complete a year-long capstone project that includes a winter or summer field component, pairing students with outside organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency and King County, said , a senior lecturer and the program鈥檚 capstone instructor. But ahead of the summer, some of the smaller nonprofit partners tightened their budgets, leaving some job sites unavailable.

鈥淎 huge selling point is that we embed students in these organizations, and largely, all that has disappeared,鈥� McDonald said.

About one-third of students decided to postpone to a later quarter, while the remaining 21 students are pressing on with a summer assignment, albeit a remote one. The program鈥檚 job fair proceeded via Zoom, with students 鈥渕eeting鈥� prospective employers in breakout rooms.

In the School of Public Health鈥檚 dietetic program, graduate students are training to become registered dietitians, primarily destined for hospitals, clinics and public health settings. Students complete seven rotations, including at least one stint in a health care facility, and one stint in a concentration area such as public policy, school nutrition or public health practice.

But during the pandemic, the placements in health care settings are in flux, and program director has been working on ways to provide students the experiences they need to graduate this summer. For some students, this meant completing a second public health rotation and delaying the start of clinical work. An entire cohort of dietitian students, nationwide, is in the same boat, she said.

鈥淥ur dietetic program has taken an individualized approach to meet students鈥� educational and career goals,鈥� Lund said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing everything we can but there are still gaps in their experiences due to the pandemic. It鈥檚 a system-level problem, and the system needs to recognize that and respond with post-credentialing training opportunities.鈥�

Partnering around the pandemic

The quest to secure employment after law school begins early: The summer between the first and second years is the 鈥渞esume-building鈥� internship that leads to the more career-focused second summer, when a successful experience at a firm or organization often ensures a job there after graduation.

Establishing the COVID-19 Clearinghouse was a collective effort, led by UW Law administrators and faculty, in consultation with alumni, retired attorneys, the Washington State Bar Association and several local firms, primarily Foster Garvey in Seattle. The pandemic had begun to generate many legal questions, and with the disappearance of so many paid jobs for law students, was there a way to address some of these issues, provide pro bono legal services to communities in need, and give students some of the experiences and skills practice they might get in a summer internship?

鈥淭here is a confluence of community need and student need,鈥� said professor , UW Law鈥檚 associate dean for experiential education, who collaboratively oversees the Clearinghouse with , co-chair of Foster Garvey鈥檚 pro bono committee. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to take an otherwise challenging experience for students and turn it into a learning experience that builds their skills and enhances their future job prospects.鈥�

The Clearinghouse matches students with supervising pro bono attorneys to tackle COVID-19 research projects that qualified legal service providers don鈥檛 have the capacity to undertake.聽 The matching is coordinated through a series of Google surveys: one for legal service providers to submit questions and projects they want students to address; another for attorneys who want to volunteer their time to student teams; a third for students to indicate their areas of interest.聽 To date, 66 UW law students have volunteered their time and skills.

The law schools at Seattle University and Gonzaga University joined the effort, and now there are 14 active projects involving dozens of students, many from the UW.

Mary Ruffin鈥檚 assignment with Foster Garvey is one of the projects that have concluded. Under the supervision of attorney Mikaela Louie, a UW Law alum, Ruffin and students Ysabel Mullarky and Dailey Koga tackled the employment rights of essential workers who live with people at high risk of the COVID-19 infection. The final product was a memo for the client, the Northwest Justice Project, to use in counseling people in need of legal advice.

As society adjusts to the new normal of the pandemic, these opportunities for community engagement can continue, said Damon-Feng, who was key to facilitating the Clearinghouse and creating a list of project needs.

鈥淢oving forward, when students may not be getting the employment experiences they need, we hope that we can get them experiences and skills training through the Clearinghouse,鈥� Damon-Feng said.聽鈥淭he Clearinghouse is also helping to meet increased need from the nonprofit and legal services community. And from the law firm side, we want to contribute to these efforts and get more people involved in this work.鈥�

UW Law faculty have developed a summer course, too: 鈥淟awyering in the Time of COVID-19,鈥� designed to provide students with a substantive overview of big-picture issues, as well as skill development. The course will be taught in modules related to legal issues central to the pandemic, such as immigration and detention, unemployment, criminal justice and detention, and small-business issues. The second half of the course will pair students with local practitioners to work on a project or case in their area of expertise. Whether through opportunities with the Clearinghouse, or in the classroom, faculty say, students have a chance to learn about the law as it relates to an unprecedented event.

It鈥檚 not the summer experience that students expected, said , the law school鈥檚 interim assistant dean for student and career services. But a can-do attitude can help.

“Students gain key legal skills through a variety of experiences, and students should remember to stay focused on continuing to learn, even if their summers don’t look how they hoped. Remember — this is just one small time in your very long career,鈥� she said.