Climate Change

Temperature maps

UMaine Report Updates Climate Challenges, Encourages Proactive Preparation

Editor’s note: The story was updated April 8, 2015.  Continuing or accelerating warming of the atmosphere and ocean. Intense precipitation events. Rising sea levels. These are signs of climate change, and all of them are affecting Maine people, according to Maine’s Climate Future: 2015 Update, a new report from the University of Maine. Recent consequences […]

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Birkel Quoted in Press Herald Article on Sea Level Rise off Maine

Sean Birkel, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, was quoted in the Portland Press Herald article, “Ocean scientists report ‘unprecedented’ spike in sea level off Portland several years ago.” Scientists at the University of Arizona, with help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found sea levels off Portland […]

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Fernandez, Koehler to Speak at MOFGA Climate Change Conference, Free Press Reports

The Free Press reported the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) will hold a “Farming in the Face of Climate Change” conference in Unity on March 7. Participants will hear about trends in Maine’s weather patterns and how on-farm nutrient cycling can help farms build resilience, according to the article. Glen Koehler, a University […]

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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 […]

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Aleutian Islands coral

In Alga, Steneck and Team Reveal More Than a Century of Environmental Information

University of Maine marine scientist Bob Steneck is part of an international team that has 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 […]

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Birkel Speaks with BDN About When Penobscot Bay Froze

Sean Birkel, the new Maine State Climatologist and a research assistant professor with the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for the article, “Old-timers still remember when Penobscot Bay froze.” Birkel said the upper Penobscot Bay used to freeze once or twice a decade during the 1800s and until […]

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WABI Covers 4-H Science Saturday

WABI (Channel 5) reported on a University of Maine 4-H Science Saturday workshop at UMaine’s Climate Change Institute. About a dozen children in grades six through eight helped design a canister to keep ice core samples gleaned from the Peruvian Andes frozen and intact for research. “Kids were eager to give me a recommendation on […]

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UMaine Climate Change Report Cited in Seacoast Online Article

A 2009 University of Maine climate change study was mentioned in a Seacoast Online article about state Rep. Lydia Blume, D-York, sponsoring a bill to help Maine’s coastal towns prepare for sea level changes. The report, “Maine’s Climate Future,” showed that Maine’s sea levels are rising and the frequency of severe storms will increase, according […]

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High School Students Help Collect Snowpack Data for Research Initiative

About 300 students at 13 Maine high schools are collecting data on Maine’s snowpack to feed into a national database tapped by scientists. The project is part of the Acadia Learning Program, a joint venture of the University of Maine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, UMaine’s School of Forest Resources and the […]

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