Eight ���ϳԹ��� researchers have been selected as Fulbright Scholars for 2026-2027 and will pursue studies around the world.��

Fulbright Scholars are college and university faculty, administrators and researchers, as well as artists and professionals, who build their skills and connections, gain valuable international insights and return home to share their experiences with their students and colleagues.

This year’s ���ϳԹ��� cohort represents a variety of disciplines, including sciences, engineering, business, environmental sciences, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science. The scholars will conduct research across the globe, including in Australia, India, Indonesia, Western Europe, Scandinavia and East Asia.

Two-thirds of this year’s ���ϳԹ��� applicants were selected as Fulbright Scholars — an astonishing acceptance rate in the prestigious and highly selective program.

“We are incredibly proud of these outstanding ���ϳԹ��� faculty and staff whose selection as Fulbright Scholars reflects the excellence, innovation and global impact of their work,” said ���ϳԹ��� Vice Provost for Global Affairs Ahmad M. Ezzeddine. “The knowledge, partnerships and cultural understanding they gain through these experiences will enrich the ���ϳԹ��� and strengthen our shared commitment to addressing global challenges through collaboration and discovery. As the Fulbright Program celebrates its 80th anniversary, we are grateful for the U.S. Department of State’s continued investment in this transformative program.”��

The Fulbright Scholar Program for academics and professionals supports more than 800 people to teach and conduct research abroad.��

This year’s ���ϳԹ��� Fulbright Scholars are:

is a professor in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences. His research focuses on how mutually beneficial interactions between species — such as how insects pollinating plants is beneficial to both — scale into networks involving multiple species, and how the structure of those networks affects ecosystems. For example, some ecological network structures, or how connections between species are arranged, make these networks more resilient to perturbations, such as droughts or climate change.

Brosi’s Fulbright Scholar award will be through Spain’s flagship public research institution, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, at the Doñana Biological Station in Seville. His work there will involve synthesizing and analyzing two comprehensive long-term datasets — one from his lab and one from his Spanish host lab — to better understand global patterns in pollination networks. In particular, scientists have recorded species that appear to be “specialists” — such as a bee species that has only been recorded visiting one plant species�� — in many ecological networks, but, without long-term data, it’s difficult to disentangle whether they are really specialists or just rare. Brosi will tackle this problem in collaboration with his Fulbright host, Ignasi Bartomeus, at Doñana.����

is the director of academic services in the Department of Bioengineering in the College of Engineering and ���ϳԹ��� Medicine. She supports the department’s doctoral students with a focus on improving the research experience, expanding opportunities and advancing access and collaboration.��

While a Fulbright Scholar, she will develop a framework for a new doctoral biomedical research exchange between the ���ϳԹ��� and Tampere University in Finland. Combs will work with faculty, students and staff at both universities to lead the development of a preliminary structure of a doctoral research exchange, including eligibility criteria, mentorship plans and evaluation metrics. She will also explore funding sources for the program’s ongoing sustainability and draft a memorandum of understanding for the institutions to consider.

, an assistant professor of management and organization and the Helen Moore Gerhardt Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship in the Foster School of Business. Her areas of expertise include entrepreneurship, organizational growth and scaling, technology and innovation strategy, and venture capital. DeSantola teaches entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial strategy to undergraduates, master’s and doctoral students. She was named a Poets & Quants top 50 undergraduate business professor in 2021.��

DeSantola will use her Fulbright award, during which she will be a visiting U.S. Scholar to University College Cork in Ireland, to study factors influencing innovation and entrepreneurship in novel food technologies. The project connects to a broader stream of DeSantola’s research exploring the emergence and evolution of new technology-based industries.

is�� an interdisciplinary scientist in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs in the College of the Environment. Her work focuses on how coastal communities adapt to climate change and other environmental and socioeconomic stressors, particularly within fisheries and aquaculture systems. During the past 15 years, she has worked with coastal populations, including Indigenous harvesters, to support food sovereignty and long-term approaches to adaptation and resilience.

Green’s Fulbright award is to advance the inclusion of�� fish and other aquatic foods —�� “Blue Foods” — into Indonesia’s National School Lunch Program. The goal of this project is to improve nutritional outcomes for school-aged children while strengthening local food systems. Through working directly with fishers and fish suppliers, Green will work with the project team to identify the conditions necessary to provide Blue Foods that promote positive nutritional outcomes for children, support local fishers and sustain local ecosystems. This project is a pilot program for the initiative that will hopefully be expanded nationally.

is an associate professor in the Information School and also is part of the Responsibility in AI Systems and Experiences (RAISE) Center. An interdisciplinary scholar with expertise in human-centered AI, Mitra’s work draws on human-computer interaction, machine learning, natural language processing and social science to understand how people and AI interact in large-scale online systems. Her research examines the societal impacts of generative AI and develops methods to make AI systems more trustworthy, culturally aware and beneficial for diverse communities.

She will use her Fulbright award in India, where she will collaborate with researchers at the Centre for Machine Intelligence and Data Science (C-MInDS) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) — the nation’s topmost and most selective public research institution. She will investigate the risks and capabilities of generative AI systems across socio-cultural contexts most relevant to the Global South. The work aims to advance more culturally aware and responsible AI while strengthening research partnerships between the United States and India.

is an associate professor in the School of Oceanography in the College of the Environment. Morris’ research uses cultivation and whole-genome DNA sequencing to identify the roles of bacteria in global nutrient cycles. With a focus on carbon, nitrogen and sulfur, he has conducted studies that show the effects of low dissolved oxygen on the nutrient cycling activities of the ocean’s most abundant organisms.��

During his time at in South Korea, Morris will pursue a project entitled, “High-throughput cultivation-based genomics of freshwater Chloroflexota.” A key goal is to advance understanding of the evolution of this important group of bacteria and its potential to mediate key nutrient transformations.

is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and in the Department of Bioengineering in the College of Engineering. She leads a neural engineering lab focused on motor brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs. Her work combines experiments with computational methods to develop new ways to build BCIs that interact with plasticity in the brain.

During her stay at the Champalimaud Institute Centre for Restorative Neurotechnology in Portugal, she will collaborate with two researchers, Dr. Juan Álvaro Gallego and Dr. John Krakauer. The new projects aim to improve our understanding of how plasticity shapes brain dynamics and apply new BCI algorithms for stroke rehabilitation.����

is a professor in the Information School and an adjunct professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering in the College of Engineering. He is the founding director of the InfoSeeking Lab and founding co-director of RAISE, the Center for Responsibility in AI Systems & Experiences. His research focuses on agentic AI, human-centered information seeking and responsible AI, examining how intelligent systems can act on people’s behalf while remaining transparent, trustworthy and accountable. He is also the founder and CEO of VersarAI, a startup translating his research on AI agents into enterprise applications. His book, “Agent Nation,” was published this year.��

Shah will use his Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, to study how agentic AI can responsibly power entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. Working with RMIT researchers and Australia’s startup community, he will investigate what he calls the Delegation Paradox: the tension between the efficiency gained by delegating tasks to AI agents and the oversight, trust and accountability that delegation demands. The work aims to produce frameworks that help founders, enterprises and policymakers adopt AI agents in ways that drive innovation without sacrificing human agency.

Recent recognition of the ���ϳԹ��� includes the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Rosentiel Award for contributions to ocean science, and the 2026 Distinguished Community Engagement Award

Assistant professor of chemistry awarded 2026 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award��

, assistant��professor��of��chemistry��at the�����ϳԹ���, received��a 2026 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The award supports early-career faculty in the chemical sciences who have created an outstanding independent body of scholarship and��demonstrated��a strong commitment to education.����

Each Camille Dreyfus��teacher-scholar��receives an unrestricted research grant of $100,000. Golder was one of 17 scholars selected for the 2026 award.����

�ҴDZ�����’s research focuses on the design and reconstruction of plastics, with an emphasis on improving polymer integrity and sustainability. The work explores how chemical design can support stronger, more adaptable materials while addressing broader challenges in plastic waste and long-term environmental impact.��

Golder said the foundation’s support will give his group the flexibility to continue pursuing “the boldest and most exciting ideas” over the next five years.��The��recognition��also��reflects the hard work and creativity of his research group over the past six years, he said.��

Principal oceanographer receives Rosenstiel Award��

, principal oceanographer at the ���ϳԹ��� Applied Physics Laboratory��and affiliate��assistant��professor��at the School of��Oceanography, received the��2026 Rosenstiel Award. The award, created in 1971 by the Rosenstiel Foundation, honors mid-career scientists whose work has made significant and growing impacts in their fields.����

The award is presented each year on a rotating basis across marine geosciences, atmospheric sciences, marine biology and ecology, ocean��sciences,��and environmental science policy. Whalen was invited to present a lecture at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine,��Atmospheric,��and Earth Science, where the award was presented in April.����

Whalen studies small-scale physics��in the ocean, including processes that generate turbulence��and mix the water, along with how these processes��interact with the dynamics of the water across ocean basins. Her work helps scientists better understand the physical drivers that shape climate and marine environments.��

Whalen said she was honored to receive the award and to join the ranks of oceanographers whose work she admires. Receiving the award also gave Whalen the opportunity to visit the Rosenstiel School, where she met with faculty and students and learned more about their work.

Professor receives Distinguished Community Engagement Award��

,��professor of ethnic, gender and labor studies and American Indian studies and adjunct professor of education at ���ϳԹ��� Tacoma��received the 2026 Distinguished Community Engagement Award in the project category. Montgomery is also an adjunct professor of bioethics and humanities at the ���ϳԹ��� School of Medicine.��The award recognizes her leadership of the Indigenous Speaker Series and Community Engagement: Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Multigenerational Community Learning.��

Through support for the Haida Sails Resurgence Project and the Northwest Maritime Center, Montgomery’s work has created meaningful opportunities for co-learning, cultural��exchange,��and the uplifting of Indigenous Knowledge Systems through place-based and multigenerational learning experiences.��

Montgomery’s community-engaged scholarship focuses on amplifying Indigenous voices, supporting dialogue around cultural and traditional lived experiences and strengthening partnerships that connect academic spaces with community knowledge. The Indigenous Speaker Series, which Montgomery created in 2015, has become a platform for sharing place-based Indigenous��knowledges��and expanding conversations across communities.����

“As a visitor to the Pacific Northwest, it is an honor to continue the responsibility to uplift place-based Indigenous��knowledges��and nurture the reciprocity of community partnerships,” Montgomery said.��

Sunbirds may look similar to hummingbirds — small, iridescent birds with thin bills — 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 ���ϳԹ��� 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 — including high-speed video of sunbirds drinking red-dyed nectar from transparent artificial flowers — 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 ���ϳԹ��� doctoral student in biology, at david_cuban@brown.edu.����

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

Seattle Fault gets 5,000 more years of sleep��

Just over 1,100 years ago an on the Seattle fault rocked — and reshaped — 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’t appear to be ready for rupture anytime soon.

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

The other ���ϳԹ��� 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, ���ϳԹ��� 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 , ���ϳԹ��� doctoral student of Earth and space sciences, at pmmorgan@uw.edu.

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

Rubin observatory expected to spot many ‘imminent impactor’ asteroids

Small asteroids — those 1 to 20 meters in diameter —�� hit the Earth 35-40 times per year, though they’re very rarely spotted by telescopes before impact. That could soon change: published in The Astrophysical Journal, ���ϳԹ��� 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 — concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere — miss.

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

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

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

Researchers have now identified a set of genes that allow some bacteria to process a compound, called homarine, that is abundant in the ocean and appears to play a key role in nutrient cycling. Phytoplankton produce loads of homarine, but scientists weren’t sure what became of it until now. In a recent study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers found a set of genes present in common and far-flung bacteria that convert homarine into glutamic acid, an essential building block for life. This suggests that homarine may be a vital and overlooked resource and highlights the importance of bacteria in stabilizing marine ecosystems. Previous studies also found that homarine serves as and helps small crabs . The ���ϳԹ��� team will continue studying homarine to better understand how it fits into the broader ecological landscape.

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

The other ���ϳԹ��� co-authors are , , , , , and �� A full list of co-authors and funding is

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 ���ϳԹ���-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 , ���ϳԹ��� professor of both biology and Earth and space sciences, at argo@uw.edu.

Other ���ϳԹ��� 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 , ���ϳԹ��� 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 , ���ϳԹ��� 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 ���ϳԹ���’s , researchers exposed mussels to temperature regimens with equal highs and lows but different patterns of change. Even when the average temperature for a set period was the same, the mussels’ 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 ���ϳԹ��� Friday Harbor Laboratories , at mnishizaki@holycross.edu.

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

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

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

Five ���ϳԹ��� faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 17, are , an assistant professor of physics, , an assistant professor of chemistry, and , an assistant professor of biology, all in the College of Arts & Sciences; , an assistant professor of computer science in the College of Engineering; and , an assistant professor of oceanography in the College of the Environment.��

Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, and including this year’s fellows, 136 faculty from ���ϳԹ��� have received a Sloan Research Fellowship, according to the Sloan Foundation.��

Sloan Fellowships are open to scholars in seven scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics — and honor early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.��

The 126 Sloan Fellows for 2026 were selected by researchers and faculty in the scientific community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in their field. Each fellow will receive $75,000 to apply toward research endeavors.��

This year’s fellows come from 44 institutions across the United States and Canada.��

Maria “Masha” Baryakhtar

�������ⲹ���ٲ���’s research in the Department of Physics focuses on theories beyond the established Standard Model of particle physics and on creating new ideas and directions for testing these theories. Such theories address outstanding puzzles in our existing understanding and often predict new, ultralight, feebly interacting particles beyond those we have discovered so far. The existence of these particles can be tested through exquisitely precise experiments in the lab or by observing extreme objects in the sky like black holes and neutron stars.

“My research program aims to search high and low for new, as yet hidden particles and forces. Because of their nature, these particles require a range of creative search strategies. The directions I am establishing use new technologies and data from the sky to the lab and may be the only way to shed light on the truly dark elements of our universe.”

Matthew R. Golder

�ҴDZ�����’s research in the Department of Chemistry addresses the omnipresent “plastics problems” from two different vantage points. First, the team thinks about new ways to prolong the useful lifetime of commodity materials. The researchers use molecular engineering to keep plastics in use longer before discarding. The Golder Research Group also develops new methods to make and repurpose plastics, with an emphasis on green chemistry and making plastics more recyclable.

“Plastics are paramount to daily life, so there are numerous opportunities to improve performance and mitigate waste. We operate at the interface of fundamental organic chemistry and applied materials science to enhance plastic integrity and sustainability. By doing so, my students really take this mission to heart and constantly dream up new ways to creatively (re)design commodity plastic materials.”��

Vikram Iyer

������’s research in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering seeks to address sustainability challenges across the full computing stack from creating recyclable polymers to reimagining the way we build computing hardware by designing AI systems to and . In particular, the group’s work goes beyond simply reducing energy consumption to quantify and tackle the environmental impacts of materials and manufacturing.��

“My group both leverages innovations from outside of computing like chemistry and material science to drive sustainability and applies computing techniques from AI to programming languages to fundamentally advance environmental sciences. This work is highly interdisciplinary and takes some extra effort at the beginning for each of us to understand the technologies and methods developed by our collaborators. By doing this, we can come up with completely new ideas that have real world impact like enabling carbon reduction at major companies like Amazon, and creating systems like battery-free robots that push the boundaries of technology.”

Willem Laursen

�����ܰ������’s research in the Department of Biology is focused on understanding how animals detect and respond to sensory cues in their environment. Using genetic manipulation, neurophysiology and behavioral analyses, the lab’s current focus is to understand how disease vector mosquitoes use sensory cues to locate hosts, mates and egg-laying sites.

“It is an honor to be selected as a Sloan Fellow. This award will support our lab’s research on the role of the mosquito gustatory, or taste, system in critical behaviors, such as blood feeding. While mosquitoes use all of their senses to efficiently locate hosts, their taste system is surprisingly understudied. By examining the gustatory systems of blood-feeding insects, we hope to better understand how taste cues on the skin and in the blood are detected and used to guide their specialized behaviors, lines of inquiry that could ultimately identify new targets for controlling the spread of disease.”

Frankie Pavia

�ʲ�������’s research in the School of Oceanography develops and applies new isotopic techniques to study feedbacks in the Earth system. His work spans the oceanic, atmospheric, lithospheric, and human domains, on timescales ranging from minutes to millennia.

“The oceans are a repository and reactor for materials originating on land, in the atmosphere, in Earth’s interior and from outer space. Chemical fingerprints of oceanic interactions with these reservoirs can be unlocked using unique analytical chemistry techniques, especially those involving the precise measurement of isotope ratios. My current research aims to discover new interactions between the oceans and the Earth system in the past, present and future, by pioneering interdisciplinary studies that use measurements of stable and radioactive isotopes to determine how much and how fast the Earth system changes. Current projects involve using cosmic dust to reconstruct sea-ice coverage, sensitively detecting human-derived carbon in the oceans, and understanding the past and future impacts of oceanic calcium carbonate dissolution on storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide.”��

Contact Baryakhtar at mbaryakh@uw.edu, Golder at goldermr@uw.edu, Iyer at vsiyer@cs.washington.edu, Laursen at wlaursen@uw.edu, and Pavia at fjpavia@uw.edu.

The waters bordering North America could soon be inhospitable to critical marine creatures if the Northeastern Pacific Ocean continues to acidify at the current rate, a new study shows.

Earth’s oceans have become since the industrial revolution began more than 200 years ago. Acidification changes marine chemistry and that calcifying organisms, such as corals and clams, need to build their skeletons and shells. The Northeastern Pacific is naturally more acidic than other oceans, fueling debate about how much its chemistry will change in the coming decades.

The study, , shows that high baseline acidity makes the water more sensitive to additional carbon dioxide from human activities. Analyses of coral skeletons from the past century revealed that CO2 has been accumulating in North American waters faster than in the atmosphere, driving rapid acidification.

“This fits into a class of really important records that show how the world has changed over the human era,” said senior author a ���ϳԹ��� associate professor of oceanography.

“The findings implicate not only marine ecosystems, but all of the people who depend on them as well,” added lead author , a ���ϳԹ��� doctoral student of oceanography.

The ocean becomes more acidified when carbon dioxide dissolves to form an acid that releases hydrogen and bicarbonate ions, lowering the water’s pH level. In North America, a powerful current system — the California Current — transports cool water south along the coast. The combination of current flow and wind creates optimal conditions for upwelling, a process that cycles deep water to the surface.

Organic matter — dead plants and animals — sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it decomposes and releases carbon dioxide back into the water. Upwelling surfaces this CO2 rich water, increasing the acidity of subsurface and surface zones. These natural fluctuations complicate researchers’ efforts to predict how much acidification will occur from human activities.

This study helps resolve these questions with records kept by centuries old corals.

Coral incorporates elements and minerals from seawater as it grows, leaving behind a valuable record of environmental conditions in its skeleton. The Pacific Ocean is home to a small vibrant species called orange cup corals. Gagnon’s lab was already studying orange cup corals when the researchers became interested in historic samples.

In 2020, the researchers began collecting samples— first from the Smithsonian Museum, and then from labs and museums all over the U.S. and Canada. They procured a total of 54 samples collected between 1888 and 1932 from the , the body of water connecting Washington state and Canada, and North American coastal waters.

Using handwritten records in logbooks, the researchers then navigated back to the original collection sites. They took orange cup corals from the same spots, sometimes more than a century later.

To plot CO2 and acidity over time, the researchers analyzed boron levels in the coral skeletons. In seawater, boron exists in several chemical forms that vary with acidity. Corals incorporate one of these forms into their skeletons as they grow, so the boron ratio in coral skeletons reflects the acidity of the seawater in which they formed.

Between 1888 and 2020, coral skeletons indicate that CO2 in seawater increased at a rate that outpaced the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The magnitude of acidification was also higher 100 to 200 meters below the surface, even though ocean acidification is typically characterized as a surface process.

“No one has acidity measurements older than a few decades,” Gagnon said. “We had to go back in time and do some detective work to pull some kind of chemical signal out of the world and show this unfortunate amplification effect.”

The amplification effect will likely strengthen as atmospheric CO2 levels continue to climb. In the study, the researchers modeled worst case scenarios to see what could happen to species if acidification continues unchecked.

“The changes in ocean chemistry were really dramatic,” Stoll said. “The Salish Sea is a region with a lot of cultural, commercial and recreational ties to marine organisms that are all rooted in the health of these ecosystems.”

Despite the tenor of their results, the researchers say there is still time to course correct.

“This is no time for nihilism. The ocean is not destroyed,” Gagnon said. “As very large emitters per capita, we have the power to change our emissions and influence outcomes for the oceans.”

Studying regions where ocean acidification is happening faster than elsewhere can also provide key insights and warning signs.

“This is a uniquely important area to study,” Stoll said. “It is at the leading edge of ocean acidification impacts and provides a window into conditions predicted for the rest of the ocean in the coming decades.”

For more information, contact Stoll at mmstoll@uw.edu or Gagnon at gagnon@uw.edu

Co-authors include at Princeton; and at the University of St. Andrews; and at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and at St. Olaf College.

This study was funded by the Washington Ocean Acidification Center, the ���ϳԹ��� Program on Climate Change, the Northwest Straits Foundation Caroline Gibson Scholarship, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, and a European Research Council Horizon 2020 research and innovation program grant.

Arctic sea ice has , when regular satellite monitoring began. As the ice grows thinner and recedes, more water is exposed to sunlight. Ice reflects sunlight but dark water absorbs it, advancing warming and accelerating ice loss. Climate models indicate that the Arctic will within the coming decades, and scientists still aren’t sure what this will mean for life on Earth.

Researchers have known for some time that fine-grained dust from space blankets the surface of Earth, falling from the cosmos at a constant rate and settling into ocean sediments. A study shows that tracking where cosmic dust has fallen — and where it hasn’t — can reveal how sea ice coverage has changed over millennia.

���� we can project the timing and spatial patterns of ice coverage decline in the future, it will help us understand warming, predict changes to food webs and fishing, and prepare for geopolitical shifts,” said , a ���ϳԹ��� assistant professor of oceanography, who led the study.

Cosmic dust swirls through space after stars explode and comets collide. Passing the sun, cosmic dust is implanted with a rare form of helium —��helium-3. Scientists measure helium-3 to distinguish cosmic dust from earthly debris.

“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Pavia said. “You’ve got this small amount of cosmic dust raining down everywhere, but you’ve also got Earth sediments accumulating pretty fast.”

In this study, Pavia was more interested in the absence of cosmic dust.

“During the last ice age, there was almost no cosmic dust in the Arctic sediments,” he said.

The researchers hypothesized that cosmic dust could stand as a proxy for ice before there were satellites to monitor changes in coverage. Ice at the sea surface blocks cosmic dust from reaching the seafloor, while open water allows cosmic dust to settle into sediment. By analyzing the amount of cosmic dust in sediment cores from three sites, researchers reconstructed the history of sea ice for the past 30,000 years.

The three sites featured in the study “span a gradient of modern ice coverage,” Pavia said. The first, located near the North Pole, is covered year-round. The second borders the edge of the ice during its annual low in September, and the third was ice-bound in 1980 but is now seasonally ice-free.

The researchers found that year-round ice coverage corresponded with less cosmic dust in the sediment. This was also observed during the last ice age, around 20,000 years ago. As Earth began to thaw, cosmic dust once again appeared in samples.

The researchers then matched ice coverage to nutrient availability, showing that nutrient consumption peaked when sea ice was low and decreased as ice built up.

The data on nutrient cycling comes from tiny shells once occupied by nitrogen digesters called . Chemical analysis of these organisms’ shells shows what percentage of the total available nutrients were consumed when they were alive.

“As ice decreases in the future, we expect to see increased consumption of nutrients by phytoplankton in the Arctic, which has consequences for the food web,” Pavia said.

Additional research is needed to show what is driving changes in nutrient availability. One hypothesis suggests that sea ice decline increases the amount of nutrients used by surface organisms because there is more photosynthesis, but another argues that nutrients are diluted by ice melting.

Both scenarios present as more consumption, but only the first indicates an increase in marine productivity.

Additional co-authors include at the University of Massachusetts Boston; and at the United States Geological Survey; and and at Caltech.

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation and a Foster and Coco Stanback Postdoctoral Fellowship.

For more information, contact Pavia at fjpavia@uw.edu

Most of the Earth’s fresh water is locked in the ice that covers Antarctica. As the ocean and atmosphere grow warmer, that ice is with sea levels and global currents changing in response. To understand the potential implications, researchers need to know just how fast the ice is disappearing, and what is driving it back.

The West Antarctic ice sheet, an unstable expanse bordering the Amundsen Sea, is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in climate projections. Records indicate that it has been steadily shrinking since the 1940s, but key details are missing. Using environmental data gathered from ice samples, tree rings and corals, ���ϳԹ��� researchers tailored a climate model to Antarctica and ran simulations to understand how changing weather patterns dictate ice melt.

The results, , were surprising. For years, researchers have hypothesized that westerly winds were ferrying warm water toward the ice sheet, accelerating ice melt. The new study flips the existing narrative on its head, or rather on its side, pointing toward winds from the north instead.

“We know the Earth is warming up on average, but that alone doesn’t explain ice loss in Antarctica,” said , a ���ϳԹ��� professor of Earth and space sciences. “To understand what’s going to happen in the future, we need to understand the details of what’s happening now, and critically, whether we are connected to it.”

The Antarctic ice sheet covers an area larger than the U.S. and Mexico combined. If the Western-Hemisphere portion were to melt, global sea levels would rise by . The ice sheet is locked in place by ice shelves, fingers of ice that stretch into the sea. Free floating sea ice blankets the surface of the surrounding waters.

To study weather in Antarctica, where there are fewer weather stations than most of the world, scientists use computer simulations that draw from available data sources. Still, these models often lack data that is specific to the region, limiting the accuracy of their outputs.

In the past century, westerly winds blowing over high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere have grown stronger in response to human-induced climate change. Indirect evidence also suggested that this trend was driving West Antarctic ice loss. But when the researchers dug into that theory, something didn’t add up.

“We thought that we were going to support what the climate models showed, which was that the westerly winds were getting stronger near the coast of Antarctica,” said , lead author and a ���ϳԹ��� postdoctoral researcher of oceanography. “But there was no evidence of westerly winds strengthening in this part of Antarctica.”

O’Connor’s doctoral research explored how proxy data — historical records from ice cores, trees and coral — can reveal past weather patterns, including wind. Her work showed that the force needed to explain accelerating melt rates was still missing from the equation.

In the new study, researchers conducted a suite of high-resolution ice-ocean simulations to identify what climate patterns were driving ice shelf melting in this critical region of Antarctica. They fed the model a wind pattern for five years at a time, measured how much mass the ice lost, and repeated the process 29 times. Each iteration represented a different wind pattern. Data from the 30 simulations showed that northerly winds consistently exacerbated ice loss. Westerlies did not have the same effect.

The northerly winds, which blow with force in Antarctica, were rearranging the sea ice surrounding Antarctica, capping off small but important gaps called polynyas.

“Sea ice is a really good insulator, it keeps the ocean relatively warm compared to the air,” said a ���ϳԹ��� professor of oceanography and of atmospheric and climate science. “When northerly winds close the polynyas, it reduces ocean heat loss, which means warmer waters and more melting of ice shelves below the surface.”

Polynyas are like pores on the icy surface of the ocean. When they are blocked, excess heat can’t escape. As the ice shelf melts, fresh water mingles with salty ocean water. A density gradient forms between the fresher, lighter water and the open ocean. This gradient powers a current that pulls in more warm ocean water from miles away, advancing ice shelf melt.

Researchers believe greenhouse gas emissions could be fueling the northerly winds. Early studies suggest that human-induced climate change is decreasing air pressure over the Amundsen Sea. This area hosts an influential low-pressure center that drives many of the Antarctic weather patterns. As it gets even lower, wind speed from the north increases.

“This mechanism provides a connection between West Antarctic ice loss and human-induced climate change, albeit a different mechanism than we previously suspected,” O’Connor said. Which is important, the researchers added, because if emissions are contributing to ice loss, perhaps cutting them could curtail it.

“I think what Gemma has done is going to lead to a complete revolution in the understanding of what drives Antarctic ice loss,” Armour said. “We had all sorts of theories about the winds that blow from west to east, but the northerly winds weren’t even on our radar. We were off by 90 degrees.”

Other authors include , a ���ϳԹ��� professor of oceanography; , a ���ϳԹ��� research scientist of Earth and space sciences; , an assistant professor of engineering at Dartmouth College; Shuntaro Hyogo, a graduate researcher of environmental science at Hokkaido University; and Taketo Shimada, a graduate researcher of environmental science at Hokkaido University

This research was funded by the Washington Research Foundation, the ���ϳԹ��� eScience Institute, the U.S. National Science Foundation, a Calvin professorship in oceanography, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Inoue Science Foundation, NASA Sea Level Change Team, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and JST SPRING.

For more information, contact Gemma O’Connor at goconnor@uw.edu.

Among the tiniest living things in the ocean are a group of single celled microbes called Prochlorococcus. They are cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, and they supply nutrients for animals all the way up the food chain. Over 75% of surface waters teem with Prochlorococcus, but as ocean temperatures rise, researchers fear that the water might be getting too warm to support the population.

Prochlorococcus is in the ocean, accounting for 5% of global photosynthesis. Because Prochlorococcus thrive in the tropics, researchers predicted that they would adapt well to global warming. Instead, a new study finds that Prochlorococcus prefers water between 66 and 86 degrees and doesn’t tolerate it much warmer. Climate models predict that subtropical and tropical ocean temperatures will exceed that threshold in the next 75 years.

“For a long time, scientists thought Prochlorococcus was going to do great in the future, but in the warmest regions, they aren’t doing that well, which means that there is going to be less carbon — less food — for the rest of the marine food web,” said , a ���ϳԹ��� research associate professor of oceanography, who led the study.

in Nature Microbiology on Sept. 8.

In the past 10 years, Ribalet and colleagues have embarked on close to 100 research cruises to study Prochlorococcus. His team has analyzed approximately 800 billion Prochlorococcus-sized cells across 150,000 miles to figure out how they are doing and whether they can adapt.

“I had really basic questions,” Ribalet said. “Are they happy when it’s warm? Or are they not happy when it’s warm?” Most of the data comes from cells grown in culture, in a lab setting, but Ribalet wanted to observe them in their natural habitat. Using a continuous flow cytometer — called — they fired a laser through the water to measure cell type and size. They then built a statistical model to monitor cell growth in real time, without disturbing the microbes.

Results showed that the rate of cell division varies with latitude, possibly due to the amount of nutrients available, sunlight or temperature. The researchers ruled out nutrient levels and sunlight before zeroing in on temperature. Prochlorococcus multiply most efficiently in water that is between 66 and 84 degrees, but above 86, rates of cell division plummeted, falling to just one-third of the rate observed at 66 degrees. Cell abundance followed the same trend.

In the ocean, mixing transports nutrients to the surface from the deep. This occurs more slowly in warm water, and surface waters in the warmest regions of the ocean are nutrient-scarce. Cyanobacteria are one of the few microbes that have adapted to live in these conditions.

“Offshore in the tropics, the water is this bright beautiful blue because there’s very little in it, aside from Prochlorococcus,” Ribalet said. The microbes can survive in these areas because they require very little food, being so small. Their activity supports most of the marine food chain, from small aquatic herbivores to whales.

Over millions of years, Prochlorococcus has perfected the ability to do more with less, shedding genes it didn’t need and keeping only what was essential for life in nutrient-poor tropical waters. This strategy paid off spectacularly, but now, with oceans warming faster than ever before, Prochlorococcus is constrained by its genome. It can’t retrieve stress response genes discarded long ago.

“Their burnout temperature is much lower than we thought it was,” Ribalet said. Previous models assumed that the cells would divide at a rate that they can’t sustain because they now lack the cellular machinery to cope with heat stress.

Prochlorococcus is one of two cyanobacteria that dominate tropical and subtropical waters. The other, Synechococcus, is larger, with a less streamlined genome. The researchers found that although Synechococcus can tolerate warmer water, it needs more nutrients to survive. Should Prochlorococcus numbers dwindle, Synechococcus could help fill the gap, but it isn’t clear how this would impact the food chain.

���� Synechococcus takes over, it’s not a given that other organisms will be able to interact with it the same way they have interacted with Prochlorococcus for millions of years,” Ribalet said.

Climate projections estimate ocean temperatures based on greenhouse gas emission trends. In this study, the researchers tested how Prochlorococcus might fare in moderate- and high-warming scenarios. In the tropics, modest warming could reduce Prochlorococcus productivity by 17%, but more advanced warming would decimate it by 51%. Globally, the moderate scenario produced a 10% decline while warmer forecasts reduced Prochlorococcus by 37%.

“Their geographic range is going to expand toward the poles, to the north and south,” Ribalet said. “They are not going to disappear, but their habitat will shift.” That shift, he added, could have dramatic implications for subtropical and tropical ecosystems.

Still, the researchers acknowledge the limitations of their study. They couldn’t examine every cell or sample all bodies of water. Their measurements are based on pooled samples, which could mask the presence of a heat-tolerant strain.

“This is the simplest explanation for the data that we have now,” Ribalet said. ���� new evidence of heat tolerant strains emerges, we’d welcome that discovery. It would offer hope for these critical organisms.”

Co-authors include , a ���ϳԹ��� professor of oceanography; , a senior research scientist in the Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy at MIT; and , co-director of the Climate Adaptation Research Center and an associate professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis.

This research was funded by the Simons Foundation and other government, foundation and industry funders of the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy.

For more information, contact Ribalet at ribalet@uw.edu.

Along with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, iron is essential for the growth of microscopic phytoplankton in the ocean. However, a new study led by oceanographers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with collaborators at the ���ϳԹ��� revealed that iron released from industrial processes, such as coal combustion and steelmaking, is altering the ecosystem in the North Pacific Transition Zone. This region, just north of Hawai‘i, is important for fisheries in the Pacific.��

The was published June 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We were able to see a connection between human activities and the location of key ecosystem boundaries in the ocean that are important for marine organisms,” said co-author , a ���ϳԹ��� associate professor of oceanography. “I hope this research highlights that human activities can impact the ocean in multiple ways, not just through changes in the climate. I think it also highlights the importance of tracking key ocean ecosystem boundaries over time, so we can better understand how this might impact marine organisms.”

Iron from human activities billows into the atmosphere and can be carried to distant lands or oceans before it’s scrubbed from the skies by rain. Industrial iron has previously been detected in the North Pacific Transition Zone, but it was unclear what effect the iron had on the ecosystem.

To piece together the seasonal cycle of iron input, phytoplankton growth and ocean mixing, the researchers analyzed water and phytoplankton samples and studied ocean dynamics during four different expeditions to this region of the Pacific Ocean. They also assessed the iron in these waters to determine whether it had the unique isotope signature of iron that is released from industrial processes.��

The team found that phytoplankton in the region are iron-deficient during the spring, so an increase in the supply of iron boosts the spring phytoplankton bloom that is typical in the area. However, as a result of a booming bloom, they deplete other nutrients more quickly, leading to a crash in phytoplankton later in the season. Importantly, the iron isotope signature did, in fact, indicate the presence of industrial iron out in the Pacific, thousands of miles away from its source.

“The ocean has boundaries that are invisible to us but known to all sorts of microbes and animals that live there,” said , lead author and assistant professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “The North Pacific Transition Zone is one of these boundaries. It divides the low-nutrient ocean gyres from the high-nutrient temperate ecosystems to the North. With more iron coming into the system, that boundary is migrating north, but we are also expecting to see these boundaries shift northward as the ocean warms.”

That’s not necessarily all bad, Hawco said. But unfortunately, the regions of the transition zone that are closer to Hawai‘i are among those that are losing out.��

“It’s a one-two punch: Industrial iron is impacting the base of the food web and the warming of the ocean is pushing these phytoplankton-rich waters further and further away from Hawai‘i,” Hawco said.

The research team is developing new techniques to monitor the iron nutrition of ocean plankton. This will shed light on how changes in iron supply, from both natural or industrial sources, could impact ocean life.��

“A project of this scale is truly the result of collaboration between scientists with diverse expertise,” said co-author , a ���ϳԹ��� research scientist in oceanography. “Thanks to these collaborations, we were able to integrate satellite observations — which reveal large-scale, multi-year trends — with ship-based data collected over several years at the same locations. This integration allowed us to link broad environmental patterns with the fine-scale molecular details of gene expression in key organisms responding to iron availability. Individually, each dataset is valuable, but together, they provide the depth and resolution needed to generate robust, predictive insights into ecosystem dynamics.”

Other ���ϳԹ��� co-authors are and . See the paper for a .

This study was funded by the Simons Foundation and National Science Foundation.��

This story is adapted from a by the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.