May 21, 2021 Mary Gates Hall CHEMISTRY,PHYSICS &GEOGRAPHY T-6H Session Moderator: Suzanne Withers, Geography <a href=”https://washington.zoom.us/j/99100066825”target =”blank ”>Join Room</a> 2:15 PM to 3:05 PM * Note: Titles in order of presentation. To What Extent Does the Expanding WUI in the in Washington state. My research considers a changing nat- Washington Cascade Mountains Increase the Likelihood ural landscape and its hydrological processes in the face of of Wildfire? global climate change, from the lens of backcountry recre- Devyn Frank Duvall, Senior, Geography: Data Science ation. I use geospatial analysis to quantify the extent to which Mentor: Suzanne Withers, Geography the snowpack of the Cascades has been impacted by temper- Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in ature increases using data from snowpack telemetry sites and wildfires and their severity. Wildfire is a natural phenomenon remotely sensed hydrologic data, and models its future state that needs to happen to regenerate life within ecosystems. given predicted climate scenarios. I discuss the dynamics of It kills off the old growth, allowing new growth to flourish winter backcountry recreation including increased usage, the in its place. Previously, scientists and political officials un- effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, avalanche awareness and derstood wildfire as an enemy of the forest, partly because risk, and the existential threat to Pacific Northwest Winter forests were valued as commodities. Wildfire has its benefits recreation when mountain snowfall becomes rain. but has devastating affects on communities. This study exam- ines wildfire in the wilderness urban interface (WUI) within Modeling the Urban Heat Island Effect in Atlanta the Cascades Mountain Range, Washington. This study has Georgia three parts. First, I mapped the WUI over two decades in the Tatum Narode, Sophomore, Environmental Science, Cascades Mountain Range, Washington. Second, I created a Edmonds Community College spatial index to depict risk levels across the study area. Last, Mentor: Rachel Wade, Physics, Edmonds College I met with stakeholders to understand the current practices of From 2004 to 2018 the Centers for Disease Control and Pre- wildfire fighting and the needs of the community. This re- vention recorded an average of 702 deaths per year in the search found significant growth in the WUI, interesting vari- United States related to excessive heat events. With more ation in wildfire risk across the Cascades, and conflicting in- of the world’s population now living in cities, understanding terests among the stakeholders, ranging from privileging for- the urban heat island effect and its impact on morbidity and est ecology to valuing the economy. These insights were mortality is increasingly important. In the US, the intensity of gained by using geospatial techniques. Wildfires aren’t go- the urban heat island effect is well known in Atlanta, GA. As ing away, and we need to understand how communities will part of a team, I examined the extent to which ground cover be impacted and can prepare for the future. affects the minimum, maximum, and average temperatures in Atlanta compared to its surrounding neighborhoods. Temper- An Analysis of the Backcountry Recreation Industry of ature data reported by weather stations was gathered at vary- the Washington Cascades in the Face of Climate Change ing distances from downtown, and cross-referenced to a map Thomas James Kakatsakis, Senior, Geography: Data Science of the land cover in Atlanta to find that temperatures varied Mentor: Suzanne Withers, Geography greatly as the distance from downtown increased. Overall, it was found that minimum temperatures varied more than av- The Cascades mountains of the Pacific Northwest are highly erage or maximum temperatures, and of all the ground cover vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and increases in types studied, more urbanization contributed to warmer tem- temperature have led to decreased snow and an uncertain fu- peratures. This study builds on these findings by introducing ture. A reduced snowpack has significant ramifications for the coarse-grained urban heat island model constructed by the evolving ski and backcountry Winter recreation industry Gabriele Manoli and colleagues at ETH Zurich which con- Undergraduate Research Program 1 www.uw.edu/undergradresearch siders factors beyond just ground cover. By applying the was created by hot spot magmatism. The earliest activ- Manoli, et al, computational model to Atlanta Georgia I can ity of each volcano erupted below sea level and was later further examine the urban heat Island effect in that region, buried by subaerial eruptions. On the island of La Palma, and explore the patterns observed in previous findings. The the seamount, or submarine-building stage of the Taburiente implications of this model stretch far beyond Atlanta Geor- volcano, is uniquely exposed due to uplift and a subsequent gia to help form geographically targeted guidelines for urban giant landslide that exposed the interior of the volcano. It centers for which extensive research has not been done to un- provides access to basalts that record the island’s early mag- derstand temperature trends. matic history. I report lead, hafnium, and strontium isotopes of Taburiente’s submarine history in order to infer the man- Metadynamic Simulations of Peptide Self-Assembly tle origin of the magma source and compare the data to that Conformations at Graphene Interfaces of the later subaerial volcanic rocks to determine if magma Zhichen Nian, Senior, Chemical Engineering source changes occurred between the two volcanic phases. Mentor: Rene Overney, Chemical Engineering Each analyzed rock sample was divided in two parts: one was acid-leached to remove possible contamination and al- Since its discovery, graphene has become a prominent ma- teration caused by hot seawater circulating through rock on terial of interest for advanced bioelectronic and biomedical the ocean floor and the other was not acid-leached. Both sam- applications such as diagnostics, drug delivery, and imaging. ple sets were then dissolved in strong acids to collect pure Pb, This two-dimensional atomically thin sheet of sp2 hybridized Hf, and Sr aliquots using ion-exchange chemistry and isotopi- carbon has exceptional electronic properties and is well suited cally analyzed using high-precision mass spectrometry. The for the development of highly sensitive and selective biosen- isotopic ratios of ocean island basalts in general differ greatly sors when paired with biomolecular adlayers. Additionally, from ocean floor basalts. This is the basis for determining if by controlling the biomolecular orientation, conformation, Taburiente’s early volcanic phase is more similar to an ocean and assembly structure of the adlayer, device functionality floor or an ocean island basalt composition. The data also and performance can be fine-tuned. In this work, we focus on detail the type of mantle source—whether primordial or re- the conformational properties of three graphene-binding pep- cycled rock that was returned from the surface back into the tides, GrBP5-WT, GrBP5-M2 and Truncated GrBP5-M2, that mantle. The leached versus non-leached sample sets quantify form strongly adhered self-assembled adlayers at graphene how much hydrothermal alteration has occurred within the surfaces. While these peptides are chemically very similar, seamount and if this is a useful technique to apply to future experimental observations revealed they demonstrate oppo- studies of ocean island basalts. site assembly phenomena upon thermal stimulus. Herein, enhanced sampling molecular dynamics simulations were employed using GROMACS simulation package with the PLUMED plugin to unravel how specific peptide confor- mations lead to the unexpected assembly behavior. Self- assembling peptide conformations were identified by com- paring their computationally derived binding energies to ex- perimental energetic data obtained from a scanning probe microscopy based molecular energetic analysis. The self- assembly structure of peptide on the graphene surface could form a module on the biosensor and used to detect specific proteins or peptides. With a better understanding of the pep- tide self-assembly mechanism, it would be significant to the development of biosensor. Pb, Hf, and Sr Isotope Compositions of Basalts from La Palma Volcano, Canary Islands: Changes in Magma Source Halie Kay Nitzsche, Senior, Chemistry, Earth and Space Sciences: Geology UW Honors Program Mentor: Bruce Nelson, Earth And Space Sciences The island of La Palma is the second youngest in the Ca- nary Island volcanic chain, 475km northwest of Africa, which 2.