Portland State University and the University of British Columbia

2026-2027 Cascadia Wildfire and urban smoke webinar series

The seventh year of the Cascadia Wildfire and Urban Smoke webinar series will include a diverse set of speakers and panels discussing critical research and policy issues related to the growing threat of wildfire. We continue to feature investigators funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Wildfire Resilience Initiative.

All sessions are held Wednesdays at 1pm Pacific Time on Zoom. Video recordings of previous years’ webinars are available at: https://research.ubc.ca/cascadia-wildfire-urban-smoke

March 17, 2027: The Impact of the LA Fire Ash Plume on the Ocean from Air to Water Quality

Presenter: Julie Dinasquet, UC San Diego

Analysis of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires reveals how toxic atmospheric smoke and "urban ash" drop heavy metals into the Pacific, altering marine biogeochemical cycles and threatening ecosystems from coastal microbes to the broader marine food web.