As fishermen, scientists and coastal communities spar over Oregon’s system of marine reserves, OSU researchers and their partners are developing the science. One of their first testing grounds is Port Orford’s Redfish Rocks.
Category » Features
February 1, 2011
Down to the Gulf
In the wake of the largest oil spill in U.S. waters, OSU scientists are monitoring whales, chemical pollution and fish.
Bruce Mate didn’t wait long. Within days of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, he was on the phone with officials from the U.S. Minerals Management Service. He and other OSU researchers are analyzing consequences of the largest spill in U.S. waters. Meanwhile, Oregon photographer Justin Bailie was on the scene in Terrebonne Parish.
February 1, 2011
Plankton Planet
Ocean microbes hold the key to marine ecosystems.
On a South Pacific research expedition, Angelicque White and Ricardo Letelier encountered a surprise: An intense red tide surrounded the ship. (Photo: Angelicque White)
February 1, 2011
Tipping Point
West Coast research consortium tackles ocean acidification
In the summer, you may have to go 20 miles out to sea to find it, but close to the seafloor, near the edge of Oregon’s continental shelf, is a preview of the future: water as acidic as what the world’s oceans may be like in 50 to 100 years. “The future of ocean acidification [...]
January 25, 2011
Cascadia Roulette
The odds are good that a major earthquake will strike the Pacific Northwest in the near future. We're overdue, says Robert Yeats.
Bob Yeats has spent his career preparing people for the possible: a catastrophic earthquake
January 25, 2011
First Oregon ShakeOut
On January 26, Oregonians will participate in the state’s first Oregon ShakeOut to raise earthquake awareness. What they learn could save lives when the next Big One hits.
December 22, 2010
Yellow tang study shows marine reserve benefit
The popular aquarium fish are rebounding after being nearly wiped out
Marine ecologists at Oregon State University have shown for the first time that tiny fish larvae can drift with ocean currents and “re-seed” fish stocks significant distances away – more than 100 miles in a new study from Hawaii.
December 7, 2010
Quest for the perfect Christmas tree
Christmas trees of the future will soon be growing in research greenhouses. (Photo: Lynn Ketchum)
November 30, 2010
In Earth’s deep crust, microbes abound
Near a mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge called Atlantis, scientists have discovered a rich microbial ecosystem in the deepest crustal rocks ever explored.
October 20, 2010
Light on Leaves
Lasers reveal forest structure in HD
Not long ago if you wanted to measure the height of a tree, you had to do trigonometry on the ground — or gear up for a climb. But these days you have a more sophisticated option: beaming lasers from the sky. A revolutionary airborne technology called LiDAR (“light detection and ranging”) is making it [...]
October 2, 2010
Countdown on the Columbia
Deadline looms for the river that turned darkness to dawn
More than 400 dams produce power and control floods in the nation’s fourth largest river basin. The U.S./Canada treaty that established responsibilities for water flow and power sharing is due for renewal.
July 23, 2010
A World Apart
Jennifer Kue was just a little girl when she began assisting Portland’s Hmong community.
July 17, 2010
Teeny Little Steps
Small changes can pay big dividends for overweight kids
Romping in the backyard at Cozy Corners family childcare home, Avery and Lauryn are boosting their health by doing what kids do naturally – running, jumping and playing.
July 17, 2010
From Problem to Profit
Western juniper could benefit Oregon's "green" economy
Which of Oregon’s abundant tree species can provide not only logs for your vacation cabin but scented oil for your afternoon massage and flavor for your evening cocktail? Juniperus occidentalis, western juniper. This hardy species – which is endemic to the dry, rocky grasslands east of the Cascades – has heartwood that is both beautiful [...]
July 17, 2010
On Track
OSU undergraduate accepted into summer biomedical program in Switzerland
By Nick Houtman and Darryl Lai Marsha Lampi runs for distance – 5,000 or 10,000 meters in track, 5,000 or 6,000 meters in cross-country. The former Lincoln High School student from Portland enjoys pacing herself but is always looking to improve. “I usually think, if only I had done this or that differently, I could [...]
July 17, 2010
Summer of Science
Experience Oregon's beauty and bounty through OSU research
Take a hike! Summer may have arrived a bit late in the Pacific Northwest, but you can make up for lost time by exploring Oregon through OSU’s Summer of Science Google map.
July 17, 2010
Put a Book in Your Backpack
Summer adventures abound in the Northwest, not only across the region’s magnificent landscape but within the covers of books written by Northwesterners about the people and places that make the region unique.
June 23, 2010
Stones on Ice
Greenland streams hold clues to future sea levels
Why should the residents of Seattle, San Francisco, New York City and Boston worry about warming in Greenland, an ice-laden island in the North Atlantic? Because if all the water locked in the massive Greenland Ice Sheet flowed into the oceans, low-lying coastal cities worldwide would be inundated. “The Greenland Ice Sheet could contribute up [...]
April 23, 2010
Gene Stalker
DNA fingerprints reveal clues to ancestry and illicit hunting of cetaceans
Scott Baker, an Oregon State University conservation geneticist and cetacean specialist whose work was featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary, “The Cove,” has been named one of four 2011 Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation.
April 23, 2010
Secret Slaughter
In the seaside village of Taiji, Japan, there’s a jarring juxtaposition: Jolly-looking tour buses shaped like happy dolphins putter up and down the streets by day, while by night fishermen secretly slaughter hundreds of panic-stricken dolphins in a nearby inlet and sell them as meat. This sinister irony permeates the Academy Award-winning movie, The Cove, [...]
April 23, 2010
Where Chemistry Meets Compassion
Examining the biological roots of empathy
You don’t think of voles as paragons of virtue. Yet one species of these drab mouse-like creatures is loyal to its mate for life, helps around the den, cuddles its young, and generally exhibits what humans would call “family values.” Meet the true-blue prairie vole. Its cousin the meadow vole, however, is a cad. Despite [...]
April 23, 2010
Finding a Balance: Q&A with Stewart Trost
Terra: Sometimes anti-obesity programs are viewed as placing emphasis on children’s weight rather than on their health. Stewart Trost: Yes, that’s true. Some programs have tried sending home BMI (body mass index) report cards to parents. They’ve had a lot of push-back from parents saying, “You’re telling me my child’s fat.” It’s difficult, because on [...]
March 23, 2010
From Margin to Mainstream
Scientists help farmers boost organic production
“The organic movement has evolved from a fringe element associated with a lost generation to a core business strategy of the world’s largest corporations.” –Reuters News Service, September 2008 When California-based Amy’s Kitchen opened a plant in Southern Oregon in 2006, the Oregon Department of Agriculture called it “a large feather in Oregon’s organic cap.” [...]
February 22, 2010
Living on Credit
Forest landowners are beginning to turn carbon to cash
As Arctic ice thins, sea levels rise and glaciers recede, Ken Faulk takes stock of his trees in the Oregon Coast Range. Last summer, he began measuring his stands of Douglas fir and white oak by pounding plastic pipes into the ground to mark the centers of circles nearly 30 feet across. Working steadily in [...]
February 22, 2010
The Stress Paradox
Coping with trauma can strengthen us over time
Carolyn Aldwin has been privy to countless untold secrets, heartbreaking stories from war zones, hospital wards and prisoner-of-war camps. People from all walks of life have confided their everyday problems and their worst nightmares to her. “I talked to someone who was a lawyer at the Nuremberg Trials,” she says. “I’ve talked to people who’ve [...]
February 22, 2010
Girl GIRL Boy Boy
Women’s stories reveal the dark side of an age-old tradition
At the “Shahargaon” community clinic near Delhi in 2008, Sunil Khanna worked with doctors and community workers to learn about women’s reproductive heath-care needs and their views on son preference. Khanna’s interviews helped him develop community-based intervention programs. (Photo: Lakshman Anand)
November 23, 2009
The Littlest Among Us
Research points the way to high-quality childcare
Clutching a book about Clifford the Big Red Dog, 4-year-old Allexis clambers onto a sofa in the Library Corner. Her mom, Tiffani Bowen, jots the child’s name on a sign-in sheet at the Child Development Laboratory in OSU’s Hallie Ford Center and then sits down beside her. Bowen’s sheltering arm, sun-bronzed and tattooed with a [...]
November 23, 2009
Leading Man
Jon Lewis explores the art and business
of American film
Moreland Hall faces the picturesque Memorial Union in the heart of a historic college campus straight out of central casting. Rounding a corner on the way to film professor Jon Lewis’ modest office, you’d encounter a poster that makes it clear he thinks in Technicolor and speaks in terms just as vivid: “REAL SEX: The [...]
November 23, 2009
Guarding the Data Bank
Business professor works to protect online privacy
In the age of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, the notion of personal privacy seems as quaint as the typewriter. Millions of us lay out our lives on the Web in neon, sharing details that used to stay in the familiar light of friends and family. Online retailers monitor our shopping preferences down to the size, [...]
June 23, 2009
Climate Impacts
Abrupt global warming could shift monsoon patterns
and cut agricultural output
At times in the distant past, an abrupt change in climate has been associated with a shift of seasonal monsoons to the south, a new study concludes, causing more rain to fall over the oceans than in the Earth’s tropical regions, and leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth. If similar changes were [...]
