MD Islander features McDonough Mackenzie in article on Acadia stewardship initiative

Mount Desert Islander featured Caitlin McDonough Mackenzie, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, in an article about the Second Century Stewardship initiative, a collaboration between the National Park Service and the Schoodic Institute. The initiative centers on a fellowship program that brings early-career scientists to Acadia to study the potential effects of climate change on the park’s natural resources, and implications for park management, Mount Desert Islander reported. McDonough Mackenzie is a fellow in the initiative, and is studying whether mountain lakes in Acadia have provided refugia, areas where life can survive during extreme environmental conditions, for plants during previous warm periods. She is taking core samples from lakes to look for evidence of plant life at various points in history, the article states. McDonough Mackenzie also will work with oral histories and traditional ecological knowledge from Native American tribes in Maine, according to the article.