With increasing temperatures and altered precipitation patterns over the past several decades, montane environments are undergoing rapid anthropogenic changes. Climate controlled treelines are moving up in elevation worldwide, with dramatic consequences for alpine ecosystems, however little is known about the local drivers of variation that influence the rate of tree line change, like small-scale topography. We conducted a repeat photography study to assess the rate of tree encroachment into the subalpine meadows of Mt. Rainier National Park in various local landforms (coves, ridges, and slopes) as well as quantify the rate of treeline change over the 20th and early 21st century. We did this by aligning historical and repeat oblique photographs in a Geographic Information System and manually delineating tree encroachment within the subalpine zone. We also verified our results by comparing them to per-pixel classifications of aerial imagery collected in 1951 and 2013. Tree encroachment has occurred in all sites on Mt. Rainier National Park over the last century. Oblique photographs showed an approximately thirty percent increase in tree cover from the 1930s to 2016. Local topography did have a significant influence on the amount of tree encroachment. Small-scale topographic ridges were predicted to show the greatest amount of tree encroachment. Our results contradict this prediction, showing that sloped sites have the greatest increase in trees, followed by ridges, then topographic depressions (coves). Analyses of aerial photos are ongoing, but are expected to show  similar results. Per-pixel classifications or aerial images will help us more easily distinguish changes in the various environments at Mt. Rainier, as well as correlate them to environmental drivers like snow duration. This study helps fill an important gap in knowledge about how topography is related to tree line change as well as raises further questions about what management practices can be implemented.

The ability to conduct and communicate climate related environmental changes relies heavily on the tool used for documentation. A key benefit of video as a scientific tool can allow scientists to obtain uninterrupted documentation over all temporal scales that provide physical and structural evidence of change. We present a video system to be used for the acquisition of duel field of view angles and 360 degree mosaics that is easily deployed and compatible for use with both stationary and mobile data collection. The visual acquisition system focuses on providing physical change information for use in comparison of GIS-based change models. Along with the video system, we present the protocol for its use and results from preliminary tests focused on measuring the accuracy and precision of the system. Additionally, a case study of a nearshore habitat, a system that experiences a significant amount of change from different climate and environmental forcings, was conducted. Completion of such a system allows scientists to use video to monitor and collect visual data regarding ecosystem change over temporal and spatial scales, and provides a communication tool for education and outreach purposes.

In recent years, local organizations have moved to restore the anthropogenically-altered shorelines of the Salish Sea. Changes to the beach and intertidal have been observed, however little research has recorded effects on the subtidal. This region is home to several species including eelgrass (Zostera marina), an important species in the Salish Sea often used to indicate ecosystem health. This research utilizes multibeam sonar bathymetric data to analyze changes to subtidal seafloor structure in response to shoreline modification and investigates potential subsequent ecosystem consequences. Two Washington state study sites were analyzed, Seahurst Park in Burien, and the Snohomish County Nearshore Restoration Project in Everett. Multibeam data was acquired using a Kongsberg EM 2040 system and post-processed in Caris HIPS to generate a base surface of sub-meter resolution. The data detected eelgrass beds in addition to revealing bathymetric changes. ArcGIS was used to generate descriptive and pattern metrics such as total elevation change, percent area changed, surface roughness, and Bathymetric Position Index. Data revealed small but noticeable changes in bathymetry and the presence of eelgrass following shoreline alteration. The changes observed could indicate that restoration may have negative consequences for Zostera populations and may potentially affect other organisms using the sublittoral habitat.

Numerical tidal models are used to investigate the relationships between tides and arctic sea ice development, polynya dynamics, and turbulent mixing. Therefore, in order to evaluate numerical tidal models, we present observations of M2 tidal amplitude and propagation collected by pressure sensors attached to moorings off the west coast of Spitsbergen, in Hornsund, Isfjorden, and the Yermak Plateau. Through harmonic analysis, M2 tidal amplitude is calculated to be 0.50m in Hornsund and Isfjorden, and between 0.34m and 0.42m on the Yermak Plateau. M2 amplitude maximums occur simultaneously at Hornsund and Isfjorden, and 1.3 hours later on the Yermak Plateau. M2 tidal amplitude is shown to decay away from the coast on the Yermak Plateau with maximum amplitude of 0.42m at the mooring nearest to the coast, 0.41m 8km farther away from the coast, 0.37m 48km farther away from the coast, and 0.34m 66km farther out to sea than the nearest shore mooring. These observations agree reasonably well with numerical tidal models and Kelvin wave propagation and amplitude decay theory. However, AOTIM-5 modeled M2 amplitudes are shown to be biased low, 0.04m on the west coast of Spitsbergen. 

Strong storms originating over the Southern Ocean just North of Antarctica have impacted the lives of many people in the coastal regions of Africa, South America, and Australia. These storms have been studied and observed since at least the end of the 17th century, most notably by Edmond Halley on a voyage to the South Atlantic; however, the causes of these storms are still not fully understood. The lack of land friction in this region plays a large part, but does not explain why these winds have increased in recent years. This recent wind phenomena, along with Halley's observations and coastal impacts for humans, led us to develop our research question: How do cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) impact storm systems and winds originating from the Southern Ocean region? We posit that the extreme coldness of this region relative to the rest of the planet is a significant contributory factor to the strength of winds and storms in the Southern Ocean. To explore this hypothesis, we ran the Atmospheric Model 2 (created by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) with SSTs symmetrized by zonal means to reduce the steep temperature gradient between the Southern Ocean and its bordering regions. This normalized the oceanic region, and made Southern Hemisphere SSTs more similar to SSTs in the Northern Hemisphere. We will present analysis of the changes in surface winds, kinetic energy, and precipitation in these simulations, and compare with theoretical predictions based on baroclinic instability theory.

The advance of the southerly lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet (Puget Lobe), into the Puget Lowland, dammed the north flowing streams, to form a system of proglacial lakes within the Puget Lowland circa 18 kyr ago. These proglacial lakes accumulated fine-grained, laminated clays (Lawton Formation) that are varved and mappable over extensive geographic areas within the Lowland. The Lawton Formation forms two distinct clay layers separated by a massive sandy unit over its local geographic extent. The low energy environment in which these sediments were deposited and its fine-grained nature provides us the opportunity to analyze the Detrital Remanent Magnetization (DRM) to gather data about the paleosecular variation over the time period of lacustrine deposition. Measurement of post-Depositional Detrital Remanent Magnetization (pDRM) provides insight into the dewatering process and diagenesis of these sediments. Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) analyses will be used to assess the effects of shear stresses related to ice flow and/or paleocurrents acting on sediment grains. Thus, AMS, combined with DRM-pDRM would give us the time of deposition with reference to the geomagnetic field, explain the various intervals and units that are observed, and provide insight into the effects of ice flow on these sediments and its remanent magnetization within the Puget Lowland. Comparing the paleomagnetic properties over the lacustrine deposition period (i.e., multiple centuries) at disparate sampling locations may provide a distinct declination record (direction and rate of change) that would be useful for high-resolution correlation of the lacustrine sediment record over the entire Puget Lowland.