Lab News & Views

Coupled systems work kicked off in Mexico

We’ve begun the next phase of our coupled systems work in Mexico! The activities formally began with a workshop of our group, MAREA, in La Paz, in November 2016. Learn more about where we are headed from the MAREA website and this great post from our CMBC colleague, Alan Ruiz Berman.

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Kara shares her science at Loreto Bay national park celebration

The waters and islands of Loreto Bay were designated a National Park in 1996, and in 2005, the area became a World Heritage Site. For the 20th Anniversary of Loreto Bay National Park, Loreto held a week-long celebration in July 2016. As part of the festivities, UMaine graduate student Kara Pellowe was invited to give […]

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Kara at the clam festival

Kara shares clam knowledge at Loreto festival

June 4th, 2016 marked the date of the 4th Annual Chocolate Clam Festival in Loreto, Mexico. Hosted by the Restaurant and Bar Association of Loreto, the festival was attended by over 500 people from Mexico and abroad. This was the second year that I’ve worked with festival organizers to set up a biology education tent […]

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Fishermen’s decisions shaped by both climate, community distinctions

Our team of social-ecological systems scholars just published a paper in World Bank Economic Review showing that fishermen’s decisions are shaped by differences in both natural and social environments. We discovered the community with stronger fishing rights exerted more control over fishermen’s decisions than communities with weaker rights, and did so in a way consistent with the impacts of climate […]

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Ecosystem-based management in practice

The director of the University of Maine Darling Marine Center says ecosystem-based approaches to restore ocean health provide a flexible framework for marine management and allow scientists and stakeholders to move beyond reactive and piecemeal solutions. “Ecosystem-based management (EBM) accounts for the diverse connections between people and oceans and the trade-offs inherent in managing for […]

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New NSF award!

Thank you to the US NSF! This newly funded project is a great example of why federal support for Geosciences and Social Sciences research is so important in order to understand how our dynamic ocean influences local communities, and vice versa. Heather, together with collaborators at Duke University, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and Stockholm University […]

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New director at Darling

As of August 1, 2015, I’ve taken on the Directorship of the Darling Marine Center, the University of Maine’s marine lab. I’m thrilled to be back in midcoast Maine and look forward to working with the Center community and our many collaborators to advance marine science, teaching and service on the coast of Maine. You […]

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Engaging in the Gulf

Former Leslie Lab member Katherine Siegel, now at research assistant with UC Santa Barbara’s Sustainable Fisheries group, authored this personal essay for Heather’s course on engaged environmental scholarship and communication. Read on to learn more about Katherine’s undergraduate research on the human and ecological dimensions of Mexican small-scale fisheries.  Arcángel sighed, pulled up his last […]

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Field Notes from Loreto

Loreto, June 2015 This year, 2015, was the first year that the Annual Chocolate Clam Festival in Loreto, Mexico included a bilingual Clam Biology tent as part of the festivities. The tent featured a large diagram of the clam life cycle with interesting facts about chocolate clams, and educational coloring pages for kids. The real […]

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