Sustainability Solutions and Technologies

salmon

Evolutionary Tools Improve Prospects for Sustainable Future

While evolution often evokes thoughts about ancient origins of life, University of Maine researcher Michael Kinnison says applied evolutionary biology is about improving the future — including pressing matters of day-to-day life and issues of international policy. A paper by lead authors from the University of Copenhagen and the University of California, Davis, as well […]

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Flood

CLAS Conference to Prep Community Planners on Ways to Cope with Climate Change

Editor’s note: For more information on the CLAS Conference, visit the conference website. Registration is available online. Old-timers sharing childhood stories about growing up in Maine sometimes recount hiking 10 miles uphill in 3 feet of snow to get to school — and home. Turns out those tales, of Maine winters anyway, might not be […]

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Documentary Series Featuring Mayewski Wins Emmy Award

A documentary about climate change that features a University of Maine explorer has won an Emmy Award. Paul Mayewski, director of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, appeared in the ninth and final episode of Years of Living Dangerously, which aired weekly from April to June on Showtime. Developed by David Gelber and Joel Bach of 60 […]

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UMaine Piloting Interdisciplinary Renewable Energy Course

The University of Maine is piloting an interdisciplinary course based on Maine tidal power development research that aims to better understand the process of applying a comprehensive approach to renewable energy projects. The course, Marine Renewable Energy: Engineering, Oceanography, Biology and Human Dimensions, is coordinated by Gayle Zydlewski, an associate professor of marine biology, and […]

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herring ladder

Sustainable Science in Action

Jeff Lord concedes he does a lot of sitting, watching and waiting along the herring ladder at Highland Lake. But when gangs of alewives begin to leap and flop their way upriver from Mill Brook, his patience is well rewarded. “It can get a little boring, so I really appreciate when there is action,” the […]

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Maine Reaps Benefits of 50-Year-Old Water Resources Research Act

The Maine Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI), a program of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, joins the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), stakeholders and academic partners in recognizing the importance of the pivotal Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) on it’s 50th anniversary. Signed into law in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, […]

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Some Landowners Embrace Sustainability, Some Don’t — SSI Examines Why

Why do some landowners embrace sustainability and conservation in their environs while others ignore these concepts altogether? This was one of the main questions Michael Quartuch explored in his doctoral research at UMaine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI). It’s a complex query. As part of SSI’s People, Landscape and Communities team (PLACE), Quartuch, a recent Ph.D. […]

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vernal pool

Research Shows 15-year History of Wetland Management

A new article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) documents nearly 15 years of vernal pools research and management by the University of Maine’s Aram Calhoun who is leading an interdisciplinary team at the Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), a program of the Sen. George J. Mitchell Center. In the article, published […]

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