Wave energy converters (WECs) are devices that convert the motion of waves into useful energy. An interdisciplinary team of University of Washington students have designed and prototyped a WEC to power ocean sensors. One of the primary advantages of a sensing system powered by a WEC rather than relying on external charging of batteries is the potential for an increase in power output, which means that the system can support higher sensing loads at finer temporal resolutions. The characteristics of the environment in which such a device would be deployed place constraints on the device’s design because they impact durability and performance. To determine these characteristics and inform design decisions, analysis of wave model data was performed at potential locations of device deployment for parameters including significant wave height, mean period, and dominant period. Analysis revealed typical wave conditions as well as statistically extreme conditions that are associated with storms and lulls in wave energy. Then, in situ measurements from ocean sensing buoys were used to determine model bias and provide potential error/offset values for the model-based analysis of wave parameters. This evaluation of model-based analysis was done by comparing model data at locations of National Data Buoy Center buoys to the in situ measurements from those buoys using regression and distribution based statistical methods. The computed error/offset values were then extrapolated to the potential device deployment locations and used as a confidence metric for the accuracy of the model-based analysis. These results ensure that the WEC design team has an accurate understanding of the constraints of the environment that they are designing for. This analysis is also essential for market research because it can establish if an area, and thus potential users, provides a viable opportunity for the deployment of the WEC-powered sensing system.

Communal roosting, during which two or more individuals of a species gather for the night, is exhibited by a wide range of taxa, including birds. There are both costs and benefits to communal roosting, making it an important behavior to study when investigating the natural history of a species. Many birds in the family Corvidae form communal roosts, including the common raven (Corvus corax). While many short-term, localized studies of raven roosts have been completed, this study is one of the first to use new generation GSM tracking devices, which utilize cell networks to upload location data, to intensively study raven roosts across a large spatio-temporal scale. Using this technology, I am able to identify individual ravens’ roosts by tracking daily movements to and from sleeping sites during winter months. GPS datapoints, time of sunset/sunrise, satellite imagery, and opportunistic observations are used to determine the location of roosts each day. This study of ravens within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem aims to answer questions about whether there are demographic differences in roost site fidelity and roost substrate use. I found both territorial and vagrant ravens use a wide variety of roost locations and roost substrate types, including trees, cliffs, buildings, and powerline towers. Native raven populations are dramatically increasing across the western United States, causing human-wildlife conflict and negatively impacting sensitive wildlife species. Further investigation of raven spatial distributions in this ongoing study will add to our knowledge of raven natural history and aid wildlife managers in making effective conservation decisions.

The diet of the common raven is generally known, but no study has yet looked at the changes in foraging habits over the course of a year. We set out to answer this question to get a better understanding of raven's seasonal reliance on anthropogenic resources. In addition to overall foraging trends, we also studied how individual identity as well as age, sex, and territorial status affected foraging locations. To monitor foraging, we trapped and attached GSM tags to ravens within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These tags allowed us to gather location data from the birds as often as every 30 minutes throughout the day across a full year. I identified foraging points as high-density groupings where at least one bird spent one consecutive hour during the day. I determined the land use/cover associated with each point by overlaying them on a satellite image provided by Google Earth. We found a significant shift in the use of anthropogenic and natural resources across seasons. The percentage of foraging points at anthropogenic resources decreases from 88.3% to 21.9% between fall/winter and spring/summer with the most used resource being gutpiles generated from hunting (22.5% in fall/winter). This information, as well as the results from our continued data gathering, will provide wildlife managers with the information required to most efficiently limit large raven populations and mitigate their effects as predators on sensitive species. Currently, ravens are often controlled through lethal methods. Our study informs managers on important food sources that could be managed to reduce the population size instead of directly removing ravens.

Mycoremediation is a widely researched method using mycelia to clean bacterially contaminated water bodies, such as the Bothell Wetlands, which has been contaminated by crow roosts. This research aims to analyze and quantify the remediative properties of the fungus Stropharia rugosoannulata on the bacteria Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis, Campylobacter jejuni and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Additionally, the remediation of the antibiotic resistance genes (ARG), Tet[A], Tet[B], Tet[M], StrA, StrB, bla_CMY and bla_CTX genes, was examined. One pound rye-seed bags were inoculated with liquid Stropharia. After three weeks, 35g of seeds were used to inoculate 60g of sterile wood chips in four 250mL bottles, for an incubation period of 3 weeks. Including a control bottle containing 60g of wood chips, we added 150mL of wetland water, spiked with 3500 CFU/100mL of the aforementioned bacteria, to each of the 5 bottles that were shaken via rocker. The following water retention times were chosen based on past experiments: 5min, 1hr, 5hrs, and 24hrs. When performing membrane filtration we used duplicate volume of 50ml for both genotypic analysis (qPCR), and for colony counting on selective plates. We analyzed the remediation using colony forming units and quantified using gene copy numbers (qPCR). The remediation of the following ARG was the highest after 1 hour of retention time: StrB (88.6%), Tet[M] (83.5%), and Sul-1 (23.2%), while bla_CMY (100 %) and StrA (73.8%) had the greatest remediation after 24 hours. Results showed no remediation for Tet[A] and Tet[B] for any retention time. The remediation of Campylobacter (83.6%), Salmonella (97.6%) and Klebsiella (93.23%) was the highest after 1hr of retention time, while E.coli (27.61%) showed a greater remediation after 24hrs. The exponential increase in anthropogenic activities promoting bacterial contamination of the ecosystem and the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, highlights the urgency to find ways to mitigate them.

Molgulidae ascidians are marine invertebrate tunicates, that are the sister group to vertebrates by phylogenomic analyses. We are interested in molgulid ascidians because they have evolved larvae that have lost all of the chordate features. Two main types of molgulids comprise tailed (urodele) larvae and tailless (anural) larvae, and we are using them to understand the evolution of the loss of the tail. Molgulid species are found in at least four distinct clades, three of which have multiple species with tailless larvae. Our current project in the Swalla lab focuses on how three species M. ficus, M. verrucifera, M. complanata are phylogenetically related to the other Molgulid Ascidians. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was used to isolate the 18S ribosomal RNA genes and a variable D2 loop region of 28S ribosomal RNA genes in these three species. Further sequencing, analysis, and alignment of three species’ genomic DNAs are used to construct molecular phylogenies. Moreover, the observation of larval development and adult morphology are used to characterize each species. For instance, if two species both have tailless larval development and same branchial basket morphology, additional to the identical 18S and 28S rRNA sequences, that suggests these two species are actually one species. If there are more similarities in their development and their genome sequences, they are more likely related to each other, and vice versa. In summary, the phylogenetical relationship of three species M. ficus, M. verrucifera, M. complanata compared to the other molgulid ascidians were determined based on the data of 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA sequences. This enhanced phylogeny allows us to understand the evolution and development of molgulid ascidians.

It is known that plant-pollinator relationships are central to the proper functioning of agricultural and ecological systems. Of the many navigation pathways pollinators use, floral scent signaling for insects is the most complex yet also the most at-risk from atmospheric human activity. Oenothera pallida, a primrose, interacts with the hawkmoth pollinators Hyles lineata and Manduca sexta, via this scent pathway. Because of their reactivity with floral scent, human-released ozone and NO2 (NOx) are the main perpetrators of scent degradation. To understand the impact of scent degradation on moth responses, I recorded changes of antennal and behavioral responses of these moths to unaltered versus degraded scent, expecting a poorer response to the degraded scent. Moth antennae act as the site of odor reception, bearing sensory hairs that detect odors, allowing the moths to navigate to scent sources. I conducted electroantennographic experiments (EAG) to record the electric signal from the insect antennae in response to each scent blend, with the degraded scent representing the impact of NOx interactions. Following the EAG, I then conducted wind tunnel behavioral experiments to investigate the impact of odor degradation on behavior, and to understand the relationship between antennal and behavioral responses in these moths. I expect that the EAG experiments will have a lower antennal response to NOx degraded scents in comparison to the normal, unaltered scent blend. Likewise, the moths might have reduced behavioral responsiveness to the degraded scent, linking the chemical biology of the scent interaction to the feeding and pollination behavior. This work has broader implications regarding the importance of plant-pollinator relationships, especially when considering environmental and agricultural health as well as the issue of food security in our changing climate.

Much of the shellfish and fish industry thrives on the coast in the northeastern Pacific, so when a heat anomaly now known as “The Blob” was discovered in the area there was concern about its impacts. Since many harmful algal blooms (HABs) thrive in higher temperatures, it was important to determine if the “The Blob” caused an increase in the amount of algae present in the water. Measurements from 2019 for the essential nutrients NO3, PO4, and Si(OH)4, as well as water conditions like temperature, salinity, density, dissolved oxygen, transmissivity, and fluorescence were compared to data from 2014 to verify if there was a difference between two years “The Blob” was confirmed to have appeared. Data from all of Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia, Canada, was taken in both 2014 and 2019 by a team under Julie Masura and Cheryl Greengrove. My analysis focused specifically on Warn Bay to Tranquil Inlet, a stretch of water between the major Bedwell and Tofino Inlets. As this had not been analyzed before there was little past data available and I had to combine material from previously separate inlets to compare measurements through time. In much of the 2019 data, the comparison showed a decrease in nutrients at the water’s surface despite consistent values at the sea floor, as well as an increase in temperature that correlated with a decrease in transmissivity and increase in fluorescence at the surface. This evidence supported the possibility of increased HABs with “The Blob” since 2014, which if consistent in future years would mean an increased possibility for these HABs to poison seafood supplies. Should this event continue to resurface, it could prove harmful to Pacific Ocean ecosystems and humans through their diets, making it necessary to find the cause and prevent the issue.