Ph.D. student pens BDN piece about consequences of early spring
The Bangor Daily News published Zachary T. Wood’s outdoors article about what an early spring can mean for Maine’s lakes. Wood is a Ph.D. student in the ecology and environmental sciences program at the University of Maine. During an early ice-out, Wood said the upper reaches of a lake warm faster and lake stratification (a warm layer on top of a cold layer) can happen earlier. If an early spring is followed by a hot summer, he says lake stratification will be stronger and last longer than in an average year. This can result in the lower layer being sealed off without a supply of oxygen. “During a long period of stratification, the lower layer can eventually run out of oxygen completely,” Wood writes.