Abigail L. S. Swann is an

Associate Professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric science is the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study of ...

and

Ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Her research group focuses on questions that examine the interactions between plants and climate.

Early life and education

Swann grew up in Glen Ellen, CA and now resides in

Seattle, WA Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of ...

. She received her bachelor's degree in earth and planetary sciences at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She then attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for her master's degree in earth and environmental sciences. She returned to the

to complete her Ph.D. Her thesis advisor was

Inez Fung Inez Fung (; born April 11, 1949) is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Managemen ...

. She was also a competitive youth and collegiate

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

, winning the

US Sailing The United States Sailing Association (US Sailing) is the national governing body for sailing in the United States. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Bristol, Rhode Island, US Sailing is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. US Sailing offers t ...

Junior Women's Doublehanded Championship (Ida Lewis Trophy) and the collegiate sailing Robert Hobbes Sportsmanship Award.

Career and research

Swann is an Associate Professor of

Atmospheric Science Atmospheric science is the study of the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climat ...

and

at the

. She uses

climate model Numerical climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the cl ...

s to simulate the way that

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s influence

earth's climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

. She has made a number of discoveries about how changes in the

biosphere The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be ...

may influence our climate. For example, she predicts that the addition of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forests in the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

may cause

warming Warming may refer to: People *Eugenius Warming, (1841–1924), Danish botanist * Thomas Warming, (b. 1969), Danish illustrator, painter and author See also *Global warming *Warming up *Warming Land Warming Land is a peninsula in far northern G ...

both by reducing the amount of area covered by reflective ice and by increasing the amount of

water vapor (99.9839 °C) , - , Boiling point , , - , specific gas constant , 461.5 J/( kg·K) , - , Heat of vaporization , 2.27 MJ/kg , - , Heat capacity , 1.864 kJ/(kg·K) Water vapor, water vapour or aqueous vapor is the gaseous pha ...

in the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...

through

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transpi ...

. While additional forests in mid latitudes across North America and Eurasia, may influence forests as far away as the tropics. Her group also examines how plants adapt to shifts in climate. For example, she found that plants use less water as CO₂ increases, decreasing the severity of drought response and thus changing the way climate models should be built. Her findings on the influence of plants on the environment have been reported by Quanta Magazine, Geographical Magazine, Inside Science, and multiple UW News publications. Swann serves as a co-chair of the Biogeochemistry Working Group, Community Earth System Model, and National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Notable publications

* * * * *

Awards and honors

* American Geophysical Union Global Environmental Change Early Career Award, 2019 * Ecological Society of America Early Career Fellow, 2019 * Science News 10 Scientists to Watch, 2019 * Jon C. Graff, Ph.D. Prize for Excellence in Science Communications, 2019 * Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, 2018 *

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

CAREER Faculty Early Career Development Award, 2016 * DISCCRS VI Scholar, 2011 * Giorgio Ruffolo Post-Doctoral fellow in Sustainability Science, 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swann, Abigail Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Columbia University alumni University of Washington faculty Academics from California