#ssec18

Category: #ssec18

Tsleil-Waututh canoe travel in Indian Arm at DiRr-6, a massive outcrop of intrusive granodioritic rock marked with a single painting, 2014. Most rock paintings were meant to be seen in this context. Photo by Jesse Morin

Dispatches: Ancient DNA reveals ecological history

Occasionally, this space includes reports and essays from guest writers on the subject of Puget Sound ecosystem recovery. Social scientist Whitney Fleming has this dispatch on new findings that are being revealed by ancient sources. Archaeologists are looking at ancient DNA combined with oral histories to determine ecological conditions from the past. 
By Whitney Fleming
People have inhabited the waters around the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. It is only in recently that humans have destroyed ecosystems in the Salish Sea to the point where they need fixing.
Scientists and policy makers are trying to figure out how to save these systems that have been broken by decades of overuse and unsustainable practice. It is not a simple problem because cumulative effects from human actions damage ecosystems over time. These actions are not limited to the present. They also include future impacts and the things that humans have done in the past.
Ecological restoration involves returning nature to a healthy state — to how it was before — but how do we know what that state is? How do we know what we are trying to restore?
Looking at a small inlet, just to the north of Puget Sound near Vancouver, Canada, an interesting story of ecological history has unfolded. As archeologist Dr. Jesse Morin explains, Burrard Inlet records show that as far back as 1913, shellfish beds were inaccessible and devastated because of oil spills from a nearby refinery.
It is also true that herring, a keystone species in the area, were completely gone by 1898.
In many cases, Traditional Use Studies (TUS) are used to determine pre-European arrival conditions. These are studies that use the knowledge of native peoples to determine what resources they used, and what species were present. These studies do exist in Burrard Inlet from the Tsleil-Waututh harvesting practices, but the histories are from the mid 1900s.
“Forage fish are as important as salmon, and they don’t exists here anymore.” Dr. Morin says. By the mid 1900s, “Most these species were gone, some of them were too toxic to eat, and most of the land was already taken up by industry.”
Even if oral histories and TUS studies cannot provide the information needed for restoration, the historic lives of Tsleil-Waututh people can still give the answer.
Just like humans today, the native peoples of the region used to throw things away. While plant based material has long biodegraded, some things are left behind. Remarkably well preserved in this region, the garbage of the Tsleil-Waututh remains, leaving a 3,000-year trail of history. As Dr. Morin so lovingly described his line of work “Archaeology is the science of garbage piles.”
These left-behind garbage piles create stratified layers that scientist can radiocarbon date to get a timeline of history. Importantly, this garbage contains the remains of what people ate before the ecosystem was impacted by the arrival of European settlers.
The remains of animals, including fish, birds, shellfish, and mammals are present in these important archeological finds. One pile from Burrard Inlet contained the remains of over 70 species.
These relics are the key to uncovering what the environment looked like before the European arrival. Dr. Morin is able to examine the DNA present in these samples and determine the exact species that were present during those times. Using this ancient DNA of salmonids and herring, his work unfolds a clearer picture of what the ecosystem of Burrard Inlet looked like back in time.
Through this technique that combines social science and ecology, researchers hope the past leaves a door open for restoration in the future.
Whitney Fleming is pursuing a PhD in Integrating Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing at Oregon State University. This article was produced as part of the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference student writers project. Funding and support was provided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program and the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. 

Breeding adult Rhinoceros Auklet flying low above the water. San Juan Islands, WA - July, 2016. Photo: Mick Thompson (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mickthompson/28777858956

Nights in the lives of the rhinoceros auklets of Protection Island

More than 70 percent of the seabird population of Puget Sound nests on a single island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. That includes a massive colony of rhinoceros auklets that has drawn the interest of scientists and birders alike. Our writer Eric Wagner visited the island this summer and reports on a long-term study of the auklets that is revealing new information about the health of seabirds in the Salish Sea.
Read the story in Salish Sea Currents.

Plastic debris gathered from the ocean. Photo courtesy of NOAA.

Building a library of microplastics in the Salish Sea

By Shannon Black
Microplastics are found throughout the Salish Sea, but “surprisingly little is known about the sources of these particles,” report Canadian scientists who presented their findings last spring at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle. Now the group, led by Dr. Peter Ross at the Vancouver Aquarium is working to categorize the types of microplastics being found in the world’s oceans with the hope of identifying their origins and stopping the problem at its source.
The team is using Fourier Transform Infra Red spectrometry (FTIR) to create an imaging database of confirmed particles. Much of what the team has found so far in British Columbia — roughly 75% of it — includes plastic microfibers that are in especially high concentrations in waters near urban centers. Scientists suspect these fibers are coming from sources such as synthetic sweaters and other clothing that shed microplastics when they are washed. The water then passes through wastewater treatment plants directly into the Salish Sea.
Microplastics are defined as plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size and vary in shape, color, chemical composition, and density. Manufactured plastics fall under the category of primary microplastics, which include nurdles and microbeads. Nurdles are small plastic pellets approximately the same size as a lentil, mass quantities of which are melted to form nearly all macroplastics. Annually the United States manufactures approximately 60 billion pounds of nurdles. Microbeads can be found in some exfoliates and even toothpastes, however, they were nationally banned in 2015 as part of the Microbead-Free Water Act. Secondary microplastics are the byproduct of larger pieces of plastic that have been fragmented through the processes of photodegradation and/or mechanical weathering. These processes are made more extreme when plastics end up in the oceans where shade is nonexistent, solar radiation is inescapable and the physical forces of waves are continuous.
While the health impacts of microplastics are not yet well understood, Ross says the particles are of special concern because they are regularly ingested by invertebrates like shellfish as well as zooplankton at the bottom of the food chain. “We’re encountering a pollutant unlike any pollutant we’ve ever seen before,” Ross told the CBC.
This story was produced as part of the Puget Sound Institute’s coverage of findings presented at the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle. Read more stories from the series on the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound. 

Plastic debris gathered from the ocean. Photo courtesy of NOAA.

Building a library of microplastics in the Salish Sea

By Shannon Black
Microplastics are found throughout the Salish Sea, but “surprisingly little is known about the sources of these particles,” report Canadian scientists who presented their findings last spring at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle. Now the group, led by Dr. Peter Ross at the Vancouver Aquarium is working to categorize the types of microplastics being found in the world’s oceans with the hope of identifying their origins and stopping the problem at its source.
The team is using Fourier Transform Infra Red spectrometry (FTIR) to create an imaging database of confirmed particles. Much of what the team has found so far in British Columbia — roughly 75% of it — includes plastic microfibers that are in especially high concentrations in waters near urban centers. Scientists suspect these fibers are coming from sources such as synthetic sweaters and other clothing that shed microplastics when they are washed. The water then passes through wastewater treatment plants directly into the Salish Sea.
Microplastics are defined as plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size and vary in shape, color, chemical composition, and density. Manufactured plastics fall under the category of primary microplastics, which include nurdles and microbeads. Nurdles are small plastic pellets approximately the same size as a lentil, mass quantities of which are melted to form nearly all macroplastics. Annually the United States manufactures approximately 60 billion pounds of nurdles. Microbeads can be found in some exfoliates and even toothpastes, however, they were nationally banned in 2015 as part of the Microbead-Free Water Act. Secondary microplastics are the byproduct of larger pieces of plastic that have been fragmented through the processes of photodegradation and/or mechanical weathering. These processes are made more extreme when plastics end up in the oceans where shade is nonexistent, solar radiation is inescapable and the physical forces of waves are continuous.
While the health impacts of microplastics are not yet well understood, Ross says the particles are of special concern because they are regularly ingested by invertebrates like shellfish as well as zooplankton at the bottom of the food chain. “We’re encountering a pollutant unlike any pollutant we’ve ever seen before,” Ross told the CBC.
This story was produced as part of the Puget Sound Institute’s coverage of findings presented at the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle. Read more stories from the series on the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound. 

J16 surfacing near Saturna Island, August 2012. Photo: Miles Ritter (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmritter/7730710932

For declining orcas, food is fate

The story of Puget Sound’s starving resident orcas has come into dramatic focus over the past two weeks. As the world watches an orca grieve for her dead calf, and tribes and federal agencies prepare to try to feed a dangerously emaciated three-year-old orca in Jpod, we look at how the lack of Chinook salmon is exacerbating the effects of toxic chemicals on these whales, creating a deadly one-two punch.
Read the story from Bob Friel in Salish Sea Currents.

Equity and social science integration at the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

A new study looks at social science and equity integration within the proceedings of the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. The study was produced by David Trimbach on behalf of the Puget Sound Partnership for the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound and the Puget Sound Institute.
From the report’s Introduction:
Social science and equity are increasingly considered integral aspects of ecosystem restoration and reflect an expanding recognition that diverse approaches, tools, and voices matter in recovery efforts. For the past 30 years, the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (SSEC 2018) has been an interdisciplinary showcase for regional transboundary recovery efforts focused on the Salish Sea. As such, its proceedings provide an opportunity to reflect on and illustrate the current status of social science and equity integration.
Read the full report in the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Chinook salmon leaping at the Ballard Locks in Seattle. Photo: Ingrid Taylar (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/taylar/29739921130

New studies on emerging threats to salmon

Chemicals, disease and other stressors can increase a salmon’s chance of being eaten or reduce its ability to catch food. We wrap up our series on the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project with a look at some of the lesser-known, but still significant factors contributing to salmon declines in the Salish Sea.
Read the story in Salish Sea Currents.

Removal of creosote-treated pilings in Puget Sound. Photo courtesy of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

Removal of creosote-treated pilings may assist herring recovery

Thousands of abandoned wood pilings — the ghosts of piers and docks past — are located throughout Puget Sound. Most of them are treated with creosote, a toxic chemical used to preserve wood that contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a class of chemicals that are also associated with oil spills and burning of fossil fuels.
While creosote-treated pilings are used less for construction of new piers, scientists at two state agencies are now studying the impacts of existing pilings on herring and shellfish populations along with the effectiveness of removal projects.
Read the story by Megan Feddern in Salish Sea Currents.

Removal of creosote-treated pilings in Puget Sound. Photo courtesy of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

Removal of creosote-treated pilings may assist herring recovery

Thousands of abandoned wood pilings — the ghosts of piers and docks past — are located throughout Puget Sound. Most of them are treated with creosote, a toxic chemical used to preserve wood that contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a class of chemicals that are also associated with oil spills and burning of fossil fuels.
While creosote-treated pilings are used less for construction of new piers, scientists at two state agencies are now studying the impacts of existing pilings on herring and shellfish populations along with the effectiveness of removal projects.
Read the story by Megan Feddern in Salish Sea Currents.

A harbor seal hunting anchovies. From Howe Sound Ballet video by Bob Turner: https://youtu.be/Ycx1hvrPAqc

Could anchovies and other fish take pressure off salmon and steelhead?

A recent influx of anchovies into Puget Sound may have saved some steelhead from predators, but researchers seek more evidence to prove the connection. Our series on the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project continues with a look at these and other potential impacts from predators on the region’s salmon and steelhead.
Read the story in Salish Sea Currents