Working Waterfront Reports on Steneck’s Alga Research
The Working Waterfront published a University of Maine news release about marine scientist Bob Steneck’s alga research. Steneck is part of an international team that unlocked an underwater time capsule in the North Pacific that has been monitoring the climate for centuries. The time capsule is the long-living, slow-growing alga Clathromorphum nereostratum that creates massive reefs in shallow coastal regions of Alaska’s Aleutian archipelago. These solid calcium carbonate structures have fine growth rings — similar to tree growth rings — which Steneck says contain historical environmental information. The team used a cutting-edge microisotopic imaging technique to reconstruct 120 years of seasonal changes in ocean acidification (pH) in the region. Foster’s Daily Democrat, The Maine Edge, Phys.org, The Weekly and Boothbay Register also published the UMaine release.