Here in early March in Maine, we are starting to get a bit of respite from the long nights, short days and bitter winds of winter. The sun shines more directly, puddles form in driveways and along the roadsides, and the voices of streams can be heard as the snowmelt begins. You may even have […]
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In Memoriam All of us at Maine Sea Grant are mourning the loss of several members of Maine’s environmental science community. Bigelow Laboratory Executive Director Graham Shimmield, who helped guide our programming through his participation on our Policy Advisory Committee, passed away in December. We also will miss Bill Townsend, a longtime advocate for clean water and protector […]
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With the turn of the year, we’ve been reflecting back on the centennial of Acadia National Park and the National Park Service. As an Acadia Centennial Partner, we participated in planning with the Acadia Centennial Task Force Science Working Group, supporting a series of lectures and stories to celebrate science in the park past, present, […]
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As the Sea Grant extension associate who covers Maine’s deep south, I collaborate routinely with my partners on the other side of the border – New Hampshire. One such partnership is with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension’s Community Development specialists. Southern Maine shares many common social, economic, and ecological opportunities and challenges with the […]
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Two-thousand sixteen marked the 100th anniversary of Acadia National Park and America’s National Park System. In honor of the centennial, the University of Maine Sea Grant Program and WERU Community Radio, both official Centennial Partners, presented a weekly radio series called Coastal Conversation in Acadia. This was a special 18-part series of short (3-5 minute) […]
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NOTE: This blog was written by Skylar Bayer, a graduate student at the University of Maine, working on a Sea Grant-funded project with Dr. Rick Wahle of University of Maine, and Dr. Pete Countway of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. The main objective of our project is to develop a qPCR survey technique as a quick and […]
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This year’s foliage was the most stunning and prolonged display of color in recent memory, a vibrant progression of crimson, orange, gold, and russet that went on for weeks and weeks. While the drought certainly had something to do with it, warming temperatures are also responsible for later peaks in fall foliage. In mid-November, against […]
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November is National Native American Heritage Month, a time to recognize “the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the United States.” On Thanksgiving, we come together in shared humanity and celebration of the lands and waters that sustain us. The original residents of the continent accommodated European colonists, shared […]
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Our Director for Research, Dr. Damian Brady published a paper along with Dr. Robert Steneck and former graduate student, Jennifer McHenry (lead author) titled, Abiotic proxies for predictive mapping of near-shore benthic assemblages: Implications for marine spatial planning. In this paper researchers identified important habitat variables and spatial gradients that correlate with abundance, diversity, and […]
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Between the head of tide above Bangor to where it widens into the bay at Searsport, the Penobscot River shifts from a flowing freshwater waterway banked by cedar and pine to a brackish, wave-lapped marsh with a rocky shoreline. In this estuary, salt concentrations fluctuate as the winds and tides push sea water and sediments […]
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