Puget Sound Marine Monitoring

Wendy provides technical support for King County’s marine water quality and sediment monitoring program. Her focus is on benthic invertebrate ecology, sediment quality, and bacteria. Specifically, she is the project lead for the marine sediment and beach water quality monitoring programs. Wendy’s background and interests include marine ecology and invertebrate taxonomy, sediment quality, and marine water quality. In addition to routine monitoring, she has worked on a variety of projects supporting the Wastewater Treatment Division with sediment monitoring near outfalls as well as special studies with the Sediment Management Program. Wendy also supports the Science and Technical Support Section’s Undergraduate Internship Program as lead mentor. 

Greg is an oceanographer providing technical support for King County’s Marine Monitoring program. He focuses on verifying and analyzing data from the offshore monitoring and mooring programs, which collect oceanographic data in Puget Sound through a combination of water samples and sensors. Before joining King County, he conducted field sampling in coastal and open ocean environments and supported the development and use of sensors used in oceanography. His skills and interests include data quality assurance, technical troubleshooting, and communicating science to diverse audiences. 

Taylor is an oceanographer and project manager for King County’s Marine Monitoring Program. Her work includes management and analysis of marine data, nutrient assessments, writing reports for technical and general audiences, and developing a program to monitor ocean acidification impacts in Puget Sound. Taylor earned a Ph.D. from Stanford in Environmental Earth System Science, where her research focused on nitrogen cycling in the global ocean. Her skills and interests include numerical modeling, data science, and teaching students of all ages. 

Kim is a marine biologist and a project manager for King County’s Marine Water Quality Monitoring Program, including the Phytoplankton and Zooplankton monitoring components. Her work supports a variety of topics (such as the Puget Sound marine food web, eelgrass restoration, and nitrogen management) and focuses on data analysis, connecting water quality/physical processes to lower food web dynamics, and report writing. Further, her work involves collaborating with other organizations conducting marine monitoring in Puget Sound (such as UW, Washington Dept. of Ecology, Washington Dept. Of Fish & Wildlife, and tribes). Kim’s skills and background include, but are not limited to, chemical and biological analyses, data visualization, and marine biota (including charismatic megafauna and marine birds). 

Jenée supervises scientists in the Toxicology and Contaminant Assessment Unit. Unit scientists help County natural resource managers evaluate, prevent, and remedy chemical contamination in the environment and track changes in stream benthic macroinvertebrates over time. The unit manages the stream benthos, emerging contaminants, toxics in freshwater tissue, and toxics in marine tissue monitoring programs. Staff support work across the Department of Natural Resources and Parks and collaborate with local, state, and tribal governments, academic researchers, and non-governmental organizations to advance regional science and inform management and policy actions centered on water quality. Jenée has a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University and has been addressing environmental contamination problems for over 25 years. Outside of work, she supports local wildlife rehabilitation and enjoys yoga, the Northwest outdoors, and any sports with balls. 

Jennifer has over 22 years of experience in the field of marine ecology and ecotoxicology. Her research at King County is focused on assessing spatial and temporal trends of toxic contaminants in fish and shellfish tissues, sediments, and wastewater media—especially as it relates to stormwater quality and wastewater operations. She also helps evaluate ecological risks to aquatic organisms associated with exposure to contaminants. Before coming to King County, Jennifer worked for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife where she helped launch the biennial Puget Sound Mussel Monitoring program to track toxic contaminants in the nearshore. 

Chelsea is a biologist and environmental scientist by training who specializes in aquatic toxicology and management of stormwater contaminants. In her role as an ecotoxicologist at King County, she leads the marine tissue monitoring program that monitors contaminant concentrations in fish and crab in King County marine waters. Chelsea also works on all things 6PPD-quinone, a tire-derived contaminant of emerging concern which is acutely toxic to coho salmon and other important species in King County. Before working at the County, Chelsea was a research assistant and graduate student at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center where she led and participated in many applied research projects related to contaminant removal by Green Stormwater Infrastructure and toxicity associated with stormwater contaminants.