The Possession Sound’s Snohomish River Estuary (PSSRE) provides a prime habitat for a large nesting population of North American osprey (Pandion haliaetus) in the Puget Sound region. The ospreys that nest in the Possession Sound are migratory, arriving between mid-March and mid-April to nest and leaving between late-August and late-September to winter in Southeastern Texas, Mexico, and Central America. Male and female ospreys migrate separately, with males returning first to prepare the nest and females leaving first to travel farther south. Juvenile ospreys do not make the return migration from their southern winter location until their second spring. As of 2016, osprey attendance reached 24 nesting pairs in the PSSRE. As apex predators whose diets are comprised primarily of fish, ospreys are considered sentinel species for studying contaminant levels in marine environments. Therefore, monitoring behavior, breeding success, and contaminant levels of ospreys can provide a census for the health of the local marine ecosystem. This study will take place on the return of the ospreys to the PSSRE in 2018 and will entail visually surveying the estuary to determine the nesting locations, return rates for both males and females, and dietary habits of ospreys. Past nest locations and populations will be compared to 2018 data. Additional research will utilize a remote camera with pan/tilt/zoom capabilities to observe and record three nest sites near the Port of Everett for nesting behaviors, fecundity, and identification of prey targets for potential heavy metal analysis.

Stream microbiomes are composed of diverse collection of microbes that play an important role in keeping the surrounding riparian zones and life within the streams healthy and thriving. The Chehalis River provides habitats in favor of fish spawning and juvenile development, but fish return populations upstream haves decreased in recent years. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize microbes within the Chehalis River tributaries, in correlation to fish populations, that are causing part of an invisible fish barrier. An invisible fish barrier is an undefined barrier that is blocking or preventing the return of fish. When water conditions are altered by human impacts or water quality is poor, it can result in microbial communities to shift. These communities can become harmful and potentially pathogenic to the surrounding hosts and environment. Microbial identification specifically within the stream in relation to fish populations could help to find ways to improve overall water quality for fish health. This analysis may provide a holistic indicator for necessary renovation and restoration of fish passages. Sites that lack species diversity in their riparian zones, and were closer to urbanization, show diversity in potentially harmful microbes like Camplyobacter, Sanguibacter and Shewanella, in correlation to low fish population. Continued monitoring will help correlate trends that are influencing riparian zones, water quality conditions and fish populations during the process of stream restoration.

Pollution from human influences is a growing problem in the Chehalis River and tributaries causing deleterious effects on stream health. Pollution runoff happens when rainfall or snow melt pick up and carry human-made or natural pollutants and are then deposited into streams, lakes, and rivers. With a better understanding of microbial populations within streams you can correlate the role that the surrounding environment is playing on overall stream health. Stream water has been facing a decline in quality from the leading cause of pollution from agriculture and manufacturer run-offs. Previous studies have linked increasing industrialization to ecological losses. Pollution entering a stream can influence and alter the abundance and diversity of aquatic life, especially at a microbial level. Although there have been many studies relating to run-off pollution affecting streams, there are no in-depth studies done on the taxonomy and functionality of microbes in urban water ecosystems, so it is important for this to be further investigated. For this project, overall stream health was measure by assessing seven locations along Alder and Fry creek. Environmental factors, percentage of man-made covering, and potential pollution runoffs were all considered and analyzed. A stream microbiome analysis was done along all sites sampled using 16s sequencing. The microbes present are a strong indicator of the health of the ecosystem. From this information, future studies can draw how to improve stream restoration efforts based off the abundance and diversity of organisms within streams facing variation in levels of human impacts.