On Oct. 13, 1997, Joyce Longcore picked up a flask of fluid sitting on the table next to her microscope. The flask was full of a mysterious type of a microscopic fungus from a group called Chytridiomycota (chytrids). This particular fungus, extracted from the skin of a dead frog, was sent to her by pathologists […]
Read more
Increasing environmental uncertainty coupled with rapidly changing market conditions in the Gulf of Maine raise important questions about the ability of Maine’s commercial fishermen to adapt. How resilient is the industry to these shifting waters? Who is best positioned to adapt and who is most vulnerable? “We have started to explore these questions by studying […]
Read more
Summer is coming to the Gulf of Maine, longer and warmer than ever — as much as two months longer. That’s the message of a new research article by a team of scientists led by Andrew Thomas of the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences. The study, published in the journal Elementa, examined the seasonality of […]
Read more
High in the trees, as soon as the first leaf buds begin to open in the early spring, browntail moth caterpillars emerge from their winter nests. The larvae voraciously feed on the young leaves with a particular appetite for hardwood species, including oak and apple. A heavily infested tree can contain over 1,000 nests, each […]
Read more
A native fungal pathogen that has increasingly damaged eastern white pine throughout New England in the last three decades has been found to be most severe in stressed, weakened trees, leading University of Maine researchers to recommend proactive forest management practices such as thinning to improve the health and value of the seminal species. The […]
Read more
Sequencing of the nuclear genome of Porphyra umbilicalis — laver or Atlantic nori — has revealed insights into how the bangiophyte red algae have thrived for over a billion years in the harshest environmental conditions — the pounding waves, baking sun and drying winds of the intertidal zone. An international research team of 50 scientists […]
Read more
A synopsis of the overall impact of the University of Maine’s research, workforce development, and service in forestry and environmental science have on the state and beyond.
Read more
University of Maine researchers have developed a tool called “BeeMapper” that will allow blueberry growers to assess the predicted wild bee abundance in the landscape surrounding their crop fields. They will debut and demonstrate the computer-based tool on Wednesday, July 19 at the UMaine Cooperative Extension annual Wild Blueberry Summer Field Day at Maine Agricultural […]
Read more
Read transcript A synopsis of marine research at the University of Maine and its impact both statewide and globally.
Read more
Ecologists and conservationists have long recognized that keystone species have major ecological importance disproportionate to their abundance or size. Think beavers, sea stars and prairie dogs — species that keep a ecosystem balanced. Similarly across landscapes, the keystone concept of disproportionate importance extends to other ecological elements, such as salt marshes in estuaries. Now an […]
Read more