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[Editor's note: Updated information related to this chapter is available in the 2015 report State of Knowledge: Climate Change in Puget Sound.]We all experience the weather with its day to day changes, and we are all familiar with the regular seasonal changes in climate where our weather transitions between spring, summer, winter and fall. Human caused climate change refers to sustain...

Perhaps the single greatest source of transformation in the Salish Sea terrestrial ecosystem is the conversion of lowland forests to a mosaic of residential, commercial and industrial lands created for human use. The state population, currently at over 6 million people, doubled over the last 40 years and is predicted to reach 8 million by 2030 (WOFM 2010). The highest population den...

The level of human activity in the Salish Sea region both partly springs from and leads to extensive use of nearshore ecosystems. Access to shipping, fishing and other commercial and recreational endeavors makes the region an attractive location for human settlement. Expanding settlement and human activities exerts growing pressures on the ecological system. In the Driver-Pressure-S...

In its broadest sense pollution is often thought of as the introduction of unwanted or undesirable substances or conditions into the natural environment. Virtually all pollution types described in this section are unintended consequences of the daily activities of humans – driving cars, heating homes, growing food, building shelter, generating waste, manufacturing goods and so on. A D...

Non-native species are those that do not naturally occur in an ecosystem. A non-native species is considered invasive when it is capable of aggressively establishing itself and causing environmental damage to an ecosystem. Plants, animals, and pathogens all can be invasive. Typical traits of an invasive species include: 1) generalist; being able to survive in a variety of physical a...

Many types and classes of models have been developed and applied to parts or all of the Salish Sea ecosystem including efforts to model impacts of climate change (e.g., Kairis 2010, Casola 2009), assess the implications of alternative urban growth patterns (e.g., Alberti et al. 2004), predict impacts of future seismic events (e.g. Hyndman 2003, Hartzell 2002), predict weather patterns...

1. What are the biggest threats to the health of Puget Sound? We reviewed eight assessments of threats relevant to the Salish Sea ecosystem. While each presents a unique list, there is considerable overlap and consistent high ranking of development, climate change, invasive species, pollution, and shoreline modification. Species harvesting was also highly ranked and should be prio...

Tim Essington1, Terrie Klinger2, Tish Conway-Cranos1,2, Joe Buchanan3, Andy James4, Jessi Kershner1, Ilon Logan2, and Jim West3   1School of Aquatic and Fisheries Science, University of Washington 2School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington 3Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 4Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering, University of Washington ...

Here we provide a limited synthesis of stream gauge data to examine trends in freshwater flows with respect to annual and daily flows, timing of flow, low flows and flows relative to instream flow guidelines. This is intended to supplement a review of published information, but we caution that a full analysis of these data and appropriate vetting of methods and interpretations is ne...

Background Puget Sound river hydrology could be affected by climate change. Precipitation in the region occurs predominately in the winter months. The accumulation of snow in the mountains is a primary storage mechanism, particularly for the snowmelt-dominated and transitional river systems. It has been estimated that more than 70% of total stream discharge in the Western Unit...