Ecologist Featured in National Geographic Video

Rhian Waller, a deep-sea and polar ecologist at the University of Maine who studies deep-sea corals, was featured in a video on the website of the National Geographic Society, which helped fund Waller’s recent research trip to Chile. Waller discussed the phenomenon of deep-water emergence, or areas where animals normally found at deep-sea depths are living in much more shallow levels than their usual distribution, allowing scientists to study the animals with more ease. Due to this phenomenon, Waller said in the video, she was recently able to collect during a dive in Chile a trove of coral samples. Waller also has funding from the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Contact: Jessica Bloch, (207) 581-3777