In the Leslie Lab at the University of Maine, we focus on the connections among people and coastal marine ecosystems. As marine conservation scientists, we use a combination of field experiments, modeling, and other approaches grounded in the ecological and social sciences and humanities. We investigate how diverse environmental and socioeconomic factors influence ecosystem and social interactions and outcomes. Our ultimate aim is to create scientific knowledge and tools that supports marine conservation and management that benefits both nature and people.
We hope that fellow researchers as well as our partners in education, policy making and community-based management will find something of interest on this site. If you are interested in learning more or exploring a way to work together, please contact us!
Thanks to the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) for including our work in this story on science communication: https://www.neefusa.org/story/environmental-education/why-science-communication-important
We had a long field season this year, starting with focus groups in the spring and then shellfish ecological studies that spanned the summer and fall. The last couple of…
Congratulations to Dr. Phoebe Jekielek! On September 19th, Phoebe successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled Integrating life history and environmental DNA (eDNA) data to enhance detection of sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) populations, in partial fulfilment of her…
The Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee recently released their 2024 report, which guides the work of the Council in finalizing the Maine Climate Action Plan later this year…
Earlier this spring, I traveled to La Paz, on the gulf coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur (BCS). It had been four years since I had last…
Read on to learn about the progress of marine ecosystem-based management, in light of a recent publication in Ocean Sustainability that Heather contributed to. The team shared their findings in an…
