Research Update: August 25, 2020
Maine-eDNA’s first sampling event of Year 2’s summer field season took place from July 27th – July 31st and the second is currently occurring in the week of August 23rd. All of Maine’s four coastal regions, including the Casco, Damariscotta, Penobscot, and Downeast regions, were sampled. According to Maine-eDNA’s Research Coordinator, Lauren Crofton-Macdonald, having approval to conduct field research within that time frame was incredibly important to the program, since future field seasons are contingent upon the schedule and protocols established in the first couple of field seasons.
While COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions have created a variety of challenges for many research projects, program personnel have been able to utilize the situation to develop their strategies, scientific and safety protocols, as well as team building.
“We couldn’t do any of this if we didn’t work together,” Crofton-Macdonald said. “That’s the key, especially with COVID-19. The teamwork has been very important, especially with these two sampling sessions. There are some veteran researchers and some brand-new graduate students who have been working together and learning from each other.”
The processes, which now include important safety measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing, have been iterative. Program personnel have been providing feedback regarding what works well with sampling, filtering, and analysis, and what is proving to be more difficult in practice. From here, Crofton-Macdonald will work with project leads in order to continuously improve aspects of the siting, sampling, and laboratory procedures.
“This is a large, complex program, but we’re finding ways to collaborate in a way that covers all of our research areas and objectives,” Crofton-Macdonald explained. “These sampling sessions are covering a large range of Maine’s coastal regions, and the samples are being sent to locations across the state for analysis, including the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, the University of Maine, and others. In order to make this work, sharing supplies, equipment, and even some personnel in a safe and efficient way across the state has been crucial.”