June 23, 2022

Around this time last year, the Pacific Northwest experienced excruciating, record-breaking heat. With funding from Washington Sea Grant, a team led by the University of Washington has compiled and analyzed hundreds of field observations to produce the first comprehensive report of the impacts of the 2021 heat wave on shellfish. The researchers found that many shellfish were victims of a “perfect storm” of factors that contributed to widespread death: The lowest low tides of the year occurred during the year’s hottest days — and at the warmest times of day. The results were published online June 20 in the journal Ecology. Read more on UW News here.