ScienceDaily reports on Steneck’s study about reef disappearance in Alaskan kelp forests

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

September 11, 2020 Climate Change, Marine Sciences, Research, Signature and Emerging Areas, UMaine in the News

ScienceDaily reported on a study co-authored by Robert Steneck, a professor of oceanography, marine biology and marine policy at the University of Maine, about the effects of predator loss and climate change on the devastation of living reefs in Alaskan kelp forests. According to the report, the red alga Clathromorphum nereostratum built the limestone reefs, located in kelp forests in the Aleutian Islands, but sea urchins have been consuming them at an alarming rate. The functional extinction of the sea urchin’s predator, the Aleutian sea otter, in the 1990s allowed the marine invertebrate to explode in population, devour the kelp forests and threaten the reefs built by algae. Rising global temperatures have made it easier for sea urchins to pierce through the red alga’s protective layer and eat it. “Ocean warming and acidification are making it difficult for calcifying organisms to produce their shells, or in this case, the alga’s protective skeleton,” said Douglas Rasher, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the lead author of the study. “This critical species has now become highly vulnerable to urchin grazing — right as urchin abundance is peaking. It’s a devastating combination.” The study was published in the journal Science.