Students help solve salmon puzzle

A team that included scientists from Washington State University finally learned what was killing salmon in urban streams in the Northwest: a chemical used in tires that’s washed into streams by rain. The 2020 discovery got widespread attention, and tire manufacturers and federal and state regulators were spurred to action.

A lesser-known fact is that WSU students were among the scientists responsible for the breakthrough. Throughout the university, undergraduate and graduate students have expansive opportunities to take part in basic and applied research.

At the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, where the salmon study was conducted, students are critical to the lab’s work, said Jenifer McIntyre, an associate professor in the School of the Environment who led that work.

Without student researchers, “we would be able to do a mere fraction of our work,” McIntyre said. The salmon studies in particular offer students the chance to do applied research that responds to community needs.

That’s what drew Caitlin Lawrence.

“I came here because of Jen’s program,” said Lawrence, a master’s degree student whose focus is aquatic toxicology. “I wanted to do research that could be applied to things happening in real time, and one of the only programs I found was Dr. McIntyre’s at WSU.”

Lawrence is part of a team testing alternatives to the tire chemical that’s so toxic to salmon. In that role she’s working alongside representatives from the Washington Department of Ecology and U.S. tire manufacturers.

She’s also been able to present research findings at conferences and represent the lab at other events. “We go to meetings where Bridgestone and Goodyear are there and I think, ‘I’m really doing this,’” Lawrence said. Her experiences at WSU helped her land a competitive science policy fellowship in Washington, D.C., after she graduates.