A team of nearly 60 scientists, which just wrapped up a five-year study of the ocean circulation, biology and chemistry off the Oregon coast, has discovered a new cycle of activity in the Jet Stream that has a major influence on upwelling and ocean productivity.
Oregon State University scientists are teaming with commercial fishermen on a new research effort to rapidly identify the home river basin of chinook salmon found in the Pacific Ocean using genetic testing.
New grants, research advances and improved technologies developed by engineers at Oregon State University are moving wave energy in the United States closer to a working reality – and furthering the case for Oregon to be a national leader in this new energy concept.
A developing tool to assess the effects of Columbia/Snake river dams and dam operations on migrating salmon and steelhead should buoy future decision-making processes if remaining technological gaps are filled, according to a March 15 Independent Scientific Advisory Board Review.
Global warming in coming decades may cause the disappearance of large areas of the low-elevation snowpack in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, a new study concludes, with significant impacts on area ski resorts that will face warm winters far more often than they do now.
While biologists sort out what levels of noise go unnoticed, are annoying or cause harm to marine mammals, physical oceanographer Jeff Nystuen is giving scientists and managers a way to sift through and identify the sounds present in various marine ecosystems.
Though some species of fish around the world are likely to be contaminated with mercury, PCBs and other toxins, the benefits of eating seafood continue to outweigh the risks, a panel of scientists said last week at a special symposium this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
When fishing boats return with catches of increasingly less-valuable fish, the commonly held notion is that the more valuable species have been fished out.
The NOAA Climate Prediction Center announced this week the official return of La Niña.
Agency forecasters predicted La Niña was forming nearly three weeks ago. Oceanic sea surface temperatures have met the operational definition of La Niña for the November through January period.
NOAA scientists report that the 2005 annual average temperature for the
contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) will likely be 1 degree Fahrenheit above the 1895-2004 mean, which will make 2005 one of the 20
warmest years on record for the country.
Scientists for years have been at a loss to explain unexpectedly high levels of mercury in fish swimming the rivers and streams of areas like eastern Oregon, far away from industrial sources of mercury pollution such as coal-fired power plants.
A new study shows that for every five pounds of fish caught by U.S. commercial fisheries, one pound is dumped – dead, dying and wasted.
A temperature analysis of more than 600 boreholes from throughout the Northern Hemisphere suggests that the Earth's climate may be warming at a higher rate than tree-ring analysis and other methods had led scientists to believe.
Scientists at Oregon State University have successfully cultured in a laboratory a microorganism with a gene for an alternate form of photochemistry – an advance that may ultimately help shed light on the ecology of the world’s oceans.
Long-range climate and stream-flow forecasters say they expect a warmer than normal winter, but see few hints about the type of precipitation a thirsty Pacific Northwest might receive during its precious snowpack/water accumulation season.
As researchers announced last wee the lowest amount of ice cover in more than a century in the Arctic, the fourth consecutive year of record and near-record lows, two polar scientists at the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory say they believe a tipping point has been reached.
Harmful algal blooms that have closed shellfish harvests in the Pacific Northwest and caused "red tides" elsewhere appear to be increasing, scientists say, and the likely suspects are global climate change and increased human impact in coastal zones.
Waves the height of a 10-story building regularly propagate beneath the ocean surface into the north Pacific from the mouth of the Columbia River, carrying near-surface organisms and chemicals halfway to the ocean floor.
Scientists at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center have found a link between the growth rings of trees and the growth rings from the ear bones of long-living rockfish species, and their findings could provide new information for resource management.
The Pacific Ocean off of Oregon has experienced a die-off of birds, declining fisheries and wildly fluctuating conditions in the past few months, and has set the stage for another hypoxic “dead zone” like those of 2002 and 2004, according to experts at Oregon State University.
NOAA Fisheries is asking state, federal and tribal agencies to collaborate in efforts to improve fish passage modeling for the federal Columbia River hydropower system.
By 2040 up to 20 percent of the Pacific Northwest could become too warm for salmon, steelhead and trout if global warming is left unchecked, says an analysis released last week by the National Wildlife Federation.
In most parts of the Cascades, the January snowpack is at its lowest level in 28 years, said state climatologist Philip Mote, a research scientist with the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington.
Recent studies have found that large, old and oily groundfish are significantly more important than their younger counterparts in maintaining healthy marine fish stocks – the larvae from their eggs better resist starvation and have a much greater chance of survival.
Extreme changes in the Arctic Oscillation in the early 1990s -- and not warmer temperatures of recent years -- are largely responsible for declines in how much sea ice covers the Arctic Ocean, with near record lows having been observed during the last three years, University of Washington researchers say.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
