Shrunken creatures & storm events

I just learned we might get a “storm event” tomorrow- 0.15” qualifies here in the rain shadow. Might be out for some sampling, we shall see what the rain gods provide.

Lots to do for the upcoming conference & school in general of course. Some interesting articles forwarded by Streamkeepers, one about how the organisms (wild) in the food web are getting smaller & smaller because of humans- check it out.

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=honey-we-shrunk-the-foodreally-real-2009-01-15

& so it begins

For the second year I attended the annual Nearshore Consortium Technical Meeting last week. This event, presented to involved parties by local researchers, allows for a catch up on various projects, mostly instigated by & involving the pending Elwha dam removals.

Last year this meeting was organized to coincide with a SeaGrant meeting, at that point I was particularly interested in listening to the comments of both the scientific & general community. It was inspiring to hear all the input from people with a deep concern for both the broad issues & our local environment. After a busy year for both SeaGrant & the Puget Sound Partnership the priorities for regaining ecosystem health have been largely established. I see today that Anne has put together a comparison of the priorities of the consortium with these two groups. I think it is going to be an interesting year in the nearshore, seeing how all this information regarding needs begins/ continues to be implemented & organized.

Rebecca & I (& Ron too) were also excited to learn about the paleo-spits of the Elwha. First of all, it’s just a great term, & second an interesting topic. (I am also particularly fond of the related term geomorphology). Detailed studies of the bathymetry around the delta have provided some great images, including those of ancient spits that have been covered by rising sea levels after the glacial maximum. I think there are currently a total of four on the east side of the river delta. Wonder how much climate change it will require to turn Ediz into the 5th…