What’s the tick situation in Maine? Tick-borne diseases, some of which are debilitating, are on the rise in Maine. In this episode of “The Maine Question,” host Ron Lisnet asks University of Maine scientists Allison Gardner and Elissa Ballman about the tick situation in the state and goals of their tick-related research projects. Gardner examines […]
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The awards keep coming for Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at the Climate Change Institute. The New England Botanical Club announced that her paper, “Common garden experiments as a dynamic tool for ecological studies of alpine plants and communities in eastern North America,” has received the Merritt Lyndon Fernald Award […]
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Karl Kreutz and colleagues previously discovered from ice cores from Alaska’s Mount Hunter that a doubling of snow accumulation and 60-fold increase in summer melt since the 1850s — the industrial era — is linked to warming in the Tropical Pacific Ocean. The movement of heat from the Pacific, through Alaska, and into the Arctic […]
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Chemical & Engineering News interviewed Kimberley Rain Miner, research assistant professor with the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, for the article titled “CFC replacements are a source of persistent organic pollution in the Arctic.” Researchers have discovered short-chain compounds of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a type of organic pollutant, in ice cores in the Arctic, […]
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University of Maine Climate Change Institute director Paul Mayewski and Charles Norchi, Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law and Fulbright-Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iceland) Arctic Scholar, co-authored the cover story “COVID-19 and climate change: the planet’s twin crises” in Global Geneva, an independent, international print and online journalism publication in […]
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Disease-transmitting blacklegged ticks invading new areas are a threat to the health of people and animals and are a burden on the economy. Allison Gardner will seek to isolate ecosystem factors — including temperature and snow pack — that inhibit their geographic spread and that lead to methods to control them during vulnerable life stages […]
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Forest landowners in southern and coastal Maine are partnering with University of Maine researchers as part of the state’s first active tick surveillance citizen science program. The Maine Forest Tick Survey based at UMaine seeks volunteer landowners with 10–1,000 wooded acres in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Kennebec, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Waldo and York counties. The citizen […]
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Heather Clifford’s groundbreaking study that found a warming planet will make dust storms more intense in the Mediterranean, which will impact glaciers, air quality and frequency of North Atlantic hurricanes, was among the top 10% of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres’ most downloaded papers published between January 2018 and December 2019. Clifford is a […]
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How has COVID-19 impacted the environment? Find out in this week’s episode of “The Maine Question.” During the devastating coronavirus pandemic, the world’s economy has slowed, which has brought about some profound changes. Sean Birkel, research assistant professor with the Climate Change Institute and the Maine State Climatologist, talks about what happens when there’s less […]
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When Maren Granstrom learned what a forester friend in Rockland did for a living — spend days outside and talk with people about trees — she decided that was the job for her. So the Vermont native enrolled at the University of Maine and earned a master’s in forestry. And she took part in a […]
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