Tag: Climate Change

kimberly miner

Department of Defense Scholar to develop policy to build climate resilience

Outside her childhood home in Boulder, Colorado, Kimberley Rain Miner used to cover one eye to block from her sight the utility box located among trees and the boulders dropped by glaciers. Miner, now an Earth and climate sciences Ph.D. student at the University of Maine, imagined being in a completely natural environment. And for […]

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diatom

UMaine researchers refining Arctic climate history through diatoms

Just above the Arctic Circle, in remote southwestern Greenland, UMaine researchers are seeking to better understand the effects of a changing climate on arctic lakes by looking at one of their smallest inhabitants — Discostella stelligera. The research team conducted a large-scale experiment to test the role of a lake’s thermal structure on populations of […]

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mayewski

Mayewski to discuss ice melt, adaptation at Maine-Arctic Forum

A distinguished Maine Professor School of Earth and Climate Sciences who is also director of the University of Maine Climate Change Institute will talk about the Arctic’s changing climate and resulting economic opportunities and geopolitical concerns Oct. 3 at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Paul Mayewski, who has led expeditions and conducted climate […]

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lobster larvae

DMC, Bigelow study: Rising ocean temperatures threaten baby lobsters

If water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine rise a few degrees by end of the century, it could mean trouble for lobsters and the industry they support. That’s according to newly published research conducted at the University of Maine Darling Marine Center and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. The research is the only published […]

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katherine allen fossils

For Allen, fossils yield data to understand ocean circulation, climate

Katherine Allen is an ocean historian. But instead of pouring through old texts, she studies the chemical composition of tiny ancient fossil shells in Southwest Pacific marine sediment. Allen, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine, says these marine fossils — which have been accumulating on the seafloor for millions of years — […]

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Olsen’s saltmarsh sparrow research cited in blog of PBS show ‘Nature’

Nature NOW, the blog of the PBS documentary show “Nature,” cited research conducted by Brian Olsen, an associate professor of biology and ecology at the University of Maine, in the post, “Can the saltmarsh sparrow keep its head above water?” According to the article, the tiny coastal bird is rapidly disappearing from the eastern United […]

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whale phytoplankton baleen

Ocean salt, temperature can barricade phytoplankton, impact food web

Subtle, fleeting differences in ocean salinity or temperature can act as physical barricades for phytoplankton, which results in a patchy distribution of the most important food resource in the ocean and may explain the large biodiversity in the sea, say University of Copenhagen and University of Maine researchers. Ocean currents transport phytoplankton, or microscopic algae, […]

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Sargent-Lake-News-feature credit Stephen Norton

The environmental legacy of acid rain

For Stephen Norton, lakes hold a treasure trove of precious scientific information. For the past 40 years, Norton, professor emeritus at the University of Maine, has studied lakes by evaluating sediment cores from around the world. Using the cores taken from the bottom of lakes, he is able to determine the age of the sediment […]

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buoy marine

Doctoral student seeks to end trial-and-error aquaculture

Locals and tourists flocking to the coast to eat fresh shellfish may not know about costs and risks that aquaculturists encounter getting the seafood to the table. One of the biggest issues for aquaculture farmers is selecting lease sites without knowing the physics and biology of the estuary environment, which can result in unpredictable productivity. […]

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