News Releases

Shell midden

Preserving Maine’s ancient coastal heritage

Maine’s coastline is dotted with more than 2,000 archaeologically documented shell middens and virtually all of them are eroding into the ocean, some quite rapidly, which is putting valuable records of Maine’s cultural and environmental history at risk, says Alice Kelley, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Maine. It is a trend that is likely […]

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UMaine researchers to receive USDA funds for climate adaption project with UVM

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced on July 19 nine grants totaling more than $8 million to study and develop new approaches for the agriculture sector to adapt to and mitigate the effects of changing environmental conditions. The funding is made possible through NIFA’s Agriculture and Food […]

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American Elm near Hitchner Hall

‘World of Trees’ tour available at UMaine

The diversity of international tree species found throughout the University of Maine campus is highlighted in a new two-part self-guided walking tour. The “World of Trees” self-guided walking tour joins four others introduced last year, focusing on gardens, outdoor sculptures, the historic district and other distinctive sights in the UMaine landscape. The self-guided walking tours […]

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Sequencing reveals how Porphyra thrives in a tough environment

Sequencing of the nuclear genome of Porphyra umbilicalis — laver or Atlantic nori — has revealed insights into how the bangiophyte red algae have thrived for over a billion years in the harshest environmental conditions — the pounding waves, baking sun and drying winds of the intertidal zone. An international research team of 50 scientists […]

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Bee on blueberry blossom

UMaine researchers to unveil wild bee habitat assessment tool July 19

University of Maine researchers have developed a tool called “BeeMapper” that will allow blueberry growers to assess the predicted wild bee abundance in the landscape surrounding their crop fields. They will debut and demonstrate the computer-based tool on Wednesday, July 19 at the UMaine Cooperative Extension annual Wild Blueberry Summer Field Day at Blueberry Hill […]

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HandWaver

UMaine team develops virtual environment for learning mathematics

As virtual reality programs grow in popularity, more and more educators are using them to teach students about a variety of subjects, from science to geography to math. A team from the University of Maine recently released a beta version of one such program that allows students to learn geometry in a virtual 3-D space. […]

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Long-term study links tree seeds, rodent population fluctuations

Using data from a 33-year population study, University of Maine researchers have found evidence that various tree species can affect rodent populations in different ways. The results advance the understanding of interactions between seeds and rodents, as well as complex population fluctuations, according to the researchers. The study was led by then-master of wildlife conservation […]

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Old tree

The big ecological roles of small natural features

Ecologists and conservationists have long recognized that keystone species have major ecological importance disproportionate to their abundance or size. Think beavers, sea stars and prairie dogs — species that keep a ecosystem balanced. Similarly across landscapes, the keystone concept of disproportionate importance extends to other ecological elements, such as salt marshes in estuaries. Now an […]

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Maine Forest Dashboard website available

The University of Maine Center for Research on Sustainable Forests has partnered with the Maine Forest Service to develop and release the Maine Forest Dashboard website. The site provides current information about aspects of Maine’s forest, including recreation and tourism, conservation, forest products and family forests. It also provides interactive graphing capabilities with important statewide […]

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