SMEA Professor Patrick Christie recently attended an international workshop in Kiel, Germany hosted by Future Earth to highlight the importance of human dimensions ocean science and links to policy making. The “Workshop on the Development of an Integrative Ocean Research Network (Future Earth Oceans Knowledge-Action Network)” assembled around 100 representatives from several existing academic and practitioner communities dealing with ocean sustainability. 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolsak and UW Professor Aseem Prakash recently wrote a piece for The Conversation offering a way to reduce carbon consumption while improving the economy. Their suggestion; consumption-based policies, not conventional regulation. These policies are designed to discourage the consumption of carbon-intensive products and services. Read more in their article “Here’s a better way to regulate carbon – and change the tired environment-versus-economy debate“. 

Join SMEA, the Center for One Health Research and the Center for Health and the Global Environment as we welcome Chris Golden, Associate Director, Planetary Health Alliance, who will speak on the topic of;
“Impacts on food security and human nutrition from global wildlife and fishery declines”
WHEN: Friday, February 3rd, 2:30-3:30 PM
WHERE: Health Science Building, D-209
ABSTRACT
One of my greatest fears is that the major strides that the public health community has made over the past 50 years will be derailed by mass-scale ecosystem degradation and anthropogenic environmental change. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I received my undergraduate degree in policy and planning from a similar environmental interdisciplinary program, but not focused on the marine environment. I believed that a MMA would help fill my knowledge gaps on key marine issues, while providing me the flexibility to build a thesis built on primary research. 

Congratulations to SMEA Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly, Research Associate Jimmy O’Donnell and second year graduate student Jimmy Kralj on their latest publication in Frontiers in Marine Science titled: “Genetic and Manual Survey Methods Yield Different and Complementary Views of an Ecosystem.” The article published on January 9 compared results of environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys and traditional methods of measuring biodiversity and concludes that in order to confidently interpret eDNA results in the context of existing ecological study, it is necessary to compare the results of eDNA with those of more established methods of ecological sampling. 

Congratulations to SMEA graduate Annie Hillier and SMEA professors Ryan Kelly and Terrie Klinger! Their article “Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science” published December 15 in the journal PLOS ONE, looked at the abstracts from more than 700 scientific papers about climate change to find out what makes a paper influential in its field. Rather than focusing on content, they looked at writing style.  

SMEA Professor Patrick Christie, Co-PI Brad Warren of Global Ocean Health, and second year SMEA Student Haley Kennard, co-hosted a workshop with the Tulalip Tribes this past Monday, December 12th at the Tulalip Tribes Headquarters. The workshop, entitled “Navigating Coastal Squeeze: Identifying Needs and Priorities to Scale Up Estuarine Restoration in Puget Sound” was generously funded by Washington Sea Grant and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
My bachelor’s degree allowed me to expand my knowledge of the ocean with courses, internships and research. It also allowed me to comprehend the importance of integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge to promote a healthier environment. Since I wanted to continue expanding my horizons and professional skill sets, I decided to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs. 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolsak and UW Professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Politics Aseem Prakash published a new piece in The Conversation entitled “The US environmental movement needs a new message.” The piece highlights that most Americans care about the environment, but didn’t vote that way this year. In the article, Professor Dolsak and Prakash state “In our view, the [environmental] movement needs a new agenda and communications strategy to reach beyond its roots and connect with working-class voters and immigrants.” The article can be accessed at https://theconversation.com/the-us-environmental-movement-needs-a-new-message-70247. 

Professor Ryan Kelly was recently interviewed on KNKX regarding his work with environmental DNA (eDNA). In the interview, Professor Kelly discusses the potential uses of eDNA, such as getting baseline information from bodies of water that may be at risk of suffering an oil spill disaster, such as the 2010 Deep Water Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Professor Kelly was a lead author on a paper published in the fall that utilized eDNA and found urban Puget Sound shorelines support a denser array of animals than in remote areas.