Essentialist beliefs about gender modality, which conceptualize being transgender as an inherent and unchanging aspect of an individual, stand in contrast to perspectives that emphasize the social construction and fluidity of gender identity. These contrasting beliefs about the transgender identity are meaningful, as they shape the attitudes and behaviors among and towards trans individuals, who historically and currently face discrimination. To understand how trans people make sense of both cisgender and transgender individuals’ beliefs about the trans identity, I am conducting 12 semi-structured interviews with University of Washington students ages 18-25 who identify as transgender and/or non-binary. I analyze how specific assumptions, expectations, and cognitive worldview perspectives impact experiences and identity formation through a double consciousness perspective, a concept that has adapted from the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois about the impacts of racism. Double consciousness is an instinctive social awareness to uphold two identities, one that is “true” to oneself, and one that is constructed to conform in accordance to societal expectations in an act of self-protection. This can lead to feelings of inauthenticity and loneliness in a society that has rigid expectations for how gender should be represented. Therefore, certain assumptions and essentialist explanations about the social category of transgender, may motivate trans people to hold an additional social awareness to anticipate how cis people will react to their identities under the cis gaze. My data provides insight into the forces behind trans prejudice and offers transphobia mitigation recommendations, while centering transgender and non-binary voices in the research. Additionally, this research provides theoretical contributions, important for understanding the processes motivating essentialism and double consciousness. I conclude with directions and suggestions for future research.

Frontline communities across and beyond the United States are continuously affected by the US nuclear legacy: from mines to test sites to radioactive waste disposal and beyond. Activists advocating for reparations and community safety often have to engage in their own research to provide the evidence the government requires as proof of radioactive harm. Most of this evidence exists only within physical documents that are behind multiple barriers, sometimes only recently declassified, and scattered across US nuclear sites. My research goal focuses on the creation of a living digital archive to help facilitate the digitization and sharing of important documentation among frontline communities. I use GitHub’s Collection Builder platform to create the foundation for an archive that can grow over time: including the first collection, the metadata schema, and information regarding the archive and how to get involved. My work includes selective digitization of documents of the now defunct UW Radiation Ecology Department, which was primarily funded by the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and involved in a multitude of nuclear operations. These materials are housed in the UW Libraries Special Collections. Based on preliminary findings, I expect to find important evidence in this material of neglect to the harm of long-term exposure to low levels of radiation, and the specific testing done and results produced by the UW Radiation Ecology Department. My research also prototypes an archive that community researchers can continue to build and involves community feedback that helps shape the design. It is a step in the process of achieving necessary safety measures that protect people and ecosystems from continued radioactive harm.

Copepods are an essential link between micro- and macroscopic trophic levels in Salish Sea food webs. The distribution of copepods across spatial and temporal scales is well-known and is partially attributed to physical oceanic processes. However, few studies have characterized copepod densities at different tidal heights in the San Juan Channel. This study investigates copepod densities at depths of 0-25m and 0-50m during high and low slack tides when tidal currents are at their lowest velocity. Higher overall copepod densities were expected during slack high tide due to the influx of oceanic water from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Samples were collected over four days in the northern San Juan Channel during September 2024. Twelve vertical plankton tows were performed with six replicates for high and low tides respectively. Samples were diluted and randomized using a plankton splitter, creating 5ml aliquots to calculate copepod density. Copepod densities from 0-50m depth during slack high tide were significantly higher (p-value < 0.001) than all other samples. No difference in copepod density was found between 0-25m and 0-50m depths during slack low tide. Increased tidal height resulted in higher copepod densities for low and high slack tides. Our findings suggest the physical processes within the San Juan Channel, such as the influx of colder, saltier waters during slack high tides increase copepod densities in the top 50m of the water column. These shifts in copepod densities may impact the feeding behavior of higher trophic levels in the San Juan Channel food webs.

Oceanic currents drive all the world’s major climatic, biological, pollutant and sediment transport patterns. Many complex forces interact to produce the intricate movements of the ocean’s waters. Tidal rectification, a phenomenon caused by the spinning reference frame of the Earth acting together with island geometry and friction, is one such process which dictates how water is circulated around islands, seamounts, and other bathymetric shapes when tidal oscillations are present. Tidal rectification has been described mathematically and compared with physical measurements for many islands, but these islands fall into a few distinct categories. Many are either large and restricted to central latitudes, or small in diameter and found in far northern latitudes. Non-Island formations, such as guyots, and smaller bathymetric features in more central latitudes are not rigorously characterized through the lens of tidal rectification. This study expands the practical characterization of tidal rectification by comparing current speed data around a guyot near Namonuito Atoll, south of Guam, to a theoretical scaling of the potential forces acting on the guyot. I hypothesized that friction-based circulation would dominate over Coriolis-based circulation due to the guyot’s low latitude. Current velocity data was collected along a circular transect around the guyot by the R/V Thomas G. Thompson in December 2024. Preliminary findings, based on a scale analysis, suggest that these two cases are difficult to distinguish. Further research is needed to derive the nature of rectified circulation for small low-latitude islands. A rigorous practical analysis of the effects of tidally-rectified circulation is critical for a deeper understanding of biological processes, sediment transport, and pollutant concentrations around island communities.

Bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), a foundational seaweed in the Salish Sea, is important to native species that rely on it for shelter, food, and protection. Recent studies show that acidweed (Desmarestia ligulata) is outcompeting bull kelp for space. Acidweed also possesses a unique ability to leach sulfuric acid under stressful conditions, which can deter predation. Northern kelp crabs are a major consumer of a variety of kelp species, particularly bull kelp, but have not been observed eating acidweed. To investigate whether kelp crabs graze on acidweed a feeding experiment was conducted. Crabs were offered one of four kelp types – fresh acidweed, stressed acidweed, fresh bull kelp, or stressed bull kelp – and their consumption rates measured for comparison. Crabs consumed less of both acidweed types versus bull kelp. However, stressed acidweed had a higher average consumption rate compared to fresh acidweed. In a follow-up experiment crabs were given bull kelp soaked in either acidweed leachate, sulfuric acid solution, or in fresh seawater. Crabs consumed more leachate-soaked than sulfuric acid-soaked kelp, but fresh bull kelp had the highest rate of consumption overall. Although crabs consumed stressed acidweed when bull kelp was unavailable, their overall feeding rate remained five times lower versus their preferred kelp type. These findings indicate that acidweed’s chemical defenses, combined with the absence of significant predation, may allow it to outcompete bull kelp in the Salish Sea, reducing the abundance and resilience of kelp forests and potentially causing shifts in community structure and biodiversity.

pH is an important parameter for determining the health of aquatic ecosystems in freshwater and marine environments. pH is naturally basic (~8.1) in marine environments, and is controlled by carbonate buffering, carbon dioxide concentrations, and temperature. This differs from freshwater environments, where temperature plays the largest role in determining pH, resulting in naturally more acidic waters with pH levels ranging from 6.5 to 7.8. Global warming is causing rapid temperature changes, which profoundly impact freshwater pH, harming ecosystem food chains. However, long-term lake pH monitoring is limited, largely because robust and pressure-tolerant pH sensing technology have been typically designed for marine environments. This gap in technology limits the technical assessment of marine pH sensors in freshwater settings. Before large-scale and long-term use of pH sensors can begin in freshwater environments, extensive tests need to be completed to ensure the data represents the environment. To conduct this study, we tested the Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor (ISFET) pH sensing technology using the Deep SeapHOx™ V2 pH sensor, manufactured by Sea-Bird Scientific, over three months in Portage Bay, off the University of Washington’s Marine Science Building Dock. We collected bi-weekly water samples from the deployment location to determine pH using spectrophotometric analysis, to assess the accuracy and stability of the Deep SeapHOx™ V2 pH readings. Our findings indicated that the Deep SeapHOx™ V2 was functional in freshwater environments but with the regular factory calibration, consistently produced readings approximately 1 pH unit different from the true measurements. Additionally, the sensor exhibited a linear drift over the test period. Both issues could be easily corrected with an in-situ calibration after the sensor had equilibrated to the environment (approximately 1 week). This study contributes to the advancement of freshwater research by expanding the pH sensor technology available for monitoring these ecosystems.

In the Equatorial Pacific, tropical instability waves (TIWs) are a dominant form of upper ocean variability during the La Niña phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Cold water along the equator is moved westward by strengthened trade winds forming TIWs off the edges of the cold tongue. TIWs have an average period of one month, a wavelength of 1,000 km, and often are characterized by their unique sea surface temperature patterns. It is critical to understand the complex physical dynamics occurring underneath TIWs as they regulate subsurface dynamics (i.e., mixing and internal waves) and ENSO. Here, we investigated the impact of stratification on both the mixed layer and vertical velocity across the TIW field utilizing a Seaglider, an autonomous buoyancy-driven underwater vehicle. In November 2024, we deployed a Seaglider near the equator to sample the TIW field during the La Niña phase for three months as a part of the University of Washington’s Student Seaglider Center. The Seaglider transected numerous TIW fronts collecting oceanographic data along its 1,000 m dives. We used the temperature, pressure, Seaglider velocity, and biogeochemical variables reported by the Seaglider to explore water column stratification and vertical velocities during TIWs. Preliminary results suggest that increased mixing across the submesoscale fronts of TIWs is associated with higher vertical velocities and increased nutrient levels near the surface. The in situ Seaglider data was also compared to data subsampled from the Global Ocean Physics Reanalysis (GLORYS), a dataset from modeled and observational data, to provide large-scale background context. This study increases in situ observation of submesoscale fronts within TIWs which is critical to further resolving small-scale processes within models.

Student-run environmental research organizations allow students to gain real-world experience while conducting research that leads to a greater understanding of the environment. These programs suffer from high turnover when students graduate and take the knowledge they have acquired with them. Loss of institutional knowledge is a major issue for organizations that rely on students and mitigating this loss is essential to ensure the success and longevity of a program. This project finds how student-run environmental research organizations can better preserve institutional knowledge through a case study with the Student Seaglider Center (SSC): a student-run lab at the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography. My research is centered around studying the efficacy of a new training class for students interested in joining the SSC through tracking how self-reported competency in various subject areas changes throughout the quarter. Their results are compared to students who are already in the lab and did not take the class. This research helps determine effective methods to transfer knowledge from experienced members to newer ones, which helps the SSC operate efficiently in the future and continue to do impactful environmental research. It also benefits other student-run research programs by providing recommendations on how they can reduce the loss of institutional knowledge when students graduate.

Changes in oceanic dynamics in the Tropical Pacific Ocean can have an influence on large-scale patterns like El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) dynamics and global climate. Understanding the magnitude of ocean temperature and salinity changes in this region in recent decades can help us understand the impacts of climate change and inform predictions. This study compares temperature and salinity in the Tropical Pacific during the winter and spring of 2025 to ship transects from the 1950s-1980s. Seaglider data were collected by the UW Student Seaglider Center’s Seaglider SG195 which was deployed off of the R/V Sikuliaq in November 2024. The Seaglider gathered data on temperature, salinity, and depth-averaged currents along a transect from the Equatorial Pacific (4° 39' 24”, -139° 53' 34") to Honolulu, Hawaii (21° 15' 0", -157° 52' 0"). These data were compared to CTD data from historic ship-based datasets, obtained from NOAA world ocean database, covering the same region and season (Winter to Spring). Preliminary analysis shows a connection between subsurface changes and the current ENSO phase. Since temperature variability in the Tropical Pacific is a key driver of ENSO dynamics, this research can support others in understanding whether the Tropical Pacific may be trending toward La Niña or El Niño baseline conditions and thus what the Equatorial Pacific will look like in upcoming decades.

In the intertidal community, various factors can influence the species richness and the percent cover of dominant species such as rockweed (Fucus distichus). Around San Juan Island, Washington State, there are different current speeds during September. There are high currents (0.7-1.5km/hr) and low currents (0.1-0.6km/hr), which can influence the community structure at different intertidal areas. This project focused on examining how species richness and the percent cover of rockweed varied at low and high current sites. Two vertical transect lines were laid (3m apart) during low tide (<1ft) from 0m (waterline) to 10m (shoreline) at both the low current site, Lab 11 and the high current site, Eagle Cove. Using the 60cm² quadrat placed at every meter (0-10m), the averaged species richness and percent cover of rockweed was recorded. Percent coverage was calculated per each square in the 60cm²  quadrat and species were identified and recorded. The high current site had a significant higher species richness of 7 and lower percent cover of rockweed of 18.9% in the intertidal. Conversely, the low current site had a significantly higher rockweed percent cover of 56.2%, with a lower species richness count of 5. The percent cover of rockweed seems to have an inverse relationship with species richness, in which when percent cover of rockweed is higher, species richness declines. This data is important because knowing the species richness and the percent cover of dominating species can contribute to understanding intertidal community structure and how current speeds may influence it. 

The strong tides along the San Juan Channel (Salish Sea) draw water from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia, causing significant mixing that influences various water parameters. Among these variables are two that are linked to primary productivity: dissolved oxygen (DO) and light irradiance (LI) – light energy that penetrates the surface per square meter. This study evaluates how tidal conditions (ebb, flood, and slack) affect DO and LI across the San Juan Channel, between Friday Harbor Marine Preserve and Shaw Island Marine Preserve. Ebb and flood tides are outgoing and incoming tides, respectively, while slack tides are periods in between where the water stays stagnant. A CTD was deployed between both locations along a transect at five equally distributed stations, with repeated sampling three times per day (two days total), each capturing one tidal condition. Six contour plots were produced to visualize changes in DO with depth along the transect – these showed that slack tides had the highest surface DO concentration and minimal variation with depth, while ebb and flood tides exhibited extreme variation with depth. Two linear regression models were also produced that examined the relationship between DO and LI under each tidal condition – these revealed a strong correlation between DO and LI as indicated by large R² values (0.6-0.9). The study suggests that slack tides promote stratification and stabilizing DO, while ebb and flood tides cause mixing and dynamic fluctuations in DO. These results provide valuable advancements to our understanding of tidal variation and DO fluctuation.