Watershed Process and Estuary Sustainability Research Group

Students from the WPES group exhibited their latest research in Augusta on March 27 at the 2025 Maine Sustainability & Water Conference. The annual event, which set a new attendance record this year, brings together researchers, resource managers and planners, regulators, and other stakeholders at the university, municipal, state, and federal levels to discuss water […]

Please consider participation in a technical session at the 2025 Joint Northeastern-Central Meeting of the Geological Society of America hosted by affiliates of the Northeast Water Cycle Center and focused on water cycle research in the Northeast.  The meeting is scheduled to take place March 27-30 in Erie Pennsylvania. A description of the session is […]

Maine Water Resources Research Institute Communicating Water Resources Science Student Internships The Maine WRRI seeks to improve the transfer of knowledge between researchers and their partners in Maine by establishing an internship program for undergraduate/graduate students to help develop resources focused on facilitating the adaptation of water science into practice. Students will work collaboratively with […]

Please join us Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 12:00-1:00 pm in BGSC 100 for the weekly School of Earth and Climate Sciences Seminar Series. Dr. Karen Prestegaard from the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland will be giving a talk on hydrological and geomorphological controls on water, sediment, and solute fluxes in Urban Fall […]

WPES faculty, staff, and graduate students convened with other coastal scientists to share research at the 2024 Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas (PECS) conference in Bordeaux, France in September. The conference, co-organized by WPES co-leader Dr. Lauren Ross, brought together an international group of researchers to discuss topics including wave, tide, and salt wedge […]

Taylor Bailey (PhD candidate) is first author of a new paper in the journal, Science of the Total Environment. The paper, Geomorphological Controls on Estuary Hydrodynamics with Implications for Diatom Blooms in Deglaciated Coastal Areas, informs current practices of harmful algae bloom (HAB) monitoring and management by linking coastal geomorphology to hydraulic conditions influencing HAB […]

The WPES research group has initiated a new collaborative project focused on mapping channel bottom textures in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. The work uses data acquired by the USGS during previous river measurement expeditions and expands on techniques described by Buscombe, Grams, and Smith (2015). The research has relevance to river management […]

A case study detailing concentrations and chemical compositions of microplastic fibers in Frenchman Bay and its upstream estuaries and rivers has been published in the journal Environmental Engineering Science. The paper, Land–Sea Connection of Microplastic Fiber Pollution in Frenchman Bay, Maine, reveals that as many as 400 billion microplastic fibers may be found in the […]

MS student Cade King was awarded first place in the graduate poster competition at the 2024 Maine Sustainability & Water Conference in Augusta.  His poster summarizes research on Analyzing Measured Flows for Salmon Habitat Management in the Upper Penobscot River. Congratulations, Cade! WPES undergraduate intern David Libby also made a strong showing with his first […]

Please join us Wednesday, November 8th from 12-1pm in BGSC 100 for the weekly School of Earth and Climate Sciences’ Seminar Series. This week, Dr. Taylor Rowley from UMass Amherst will be joining us to discuss the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission developed by NASA. All are welcome to join and talk with Dr. Rowley. For those […]

Zydlewski J, Coghlan S, Dillingham C, Figueroa-Muñoz G, Merriam C, Smith S, Smith R, Stich D, Vogel S, Wilson K and Zydlewski G. 2023. Seven dam challenges for migratory fish: insights from the Penobscot River. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Vol. 11:1253657. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1253657

Please join us Wednesday, 10/18 at noon in BGSC 100 for our weekly ECS Seminar Series. This week, Dr. Jabari Jones from Bowdoin College will be giving a talk related to the impact humans have had on geologic change. Please join us following the seminar in the second floor atrium for a chance to meet […]

A case study by WPES researchers, Bea Van Dam and Sean Smith, was published this week in the journal, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. The paper, Remote Detection of Upland Surface Water Storage Capacity in Deglaciated Terrain, was inspired by observations of micro topography from tree throw in multiple locations in central and coastal Maine, […]

WPES faculty, Sean Smith, welcomes Paul Grams, Ph.D. of the USGS for a lecture on the impacts of sustained drought on the Colorado River. The in-person lecture is scheduled for UMaine students on September 28 in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences.

Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation – Pritchard Outstanding Physical Oceanography Paper Award “The Pritchard Award Committee is excited to select “Coastal Hydrodynamics and Timescales in Meso-Macrotidal Estuaries in the Gulf of Maine: a Model Study,” authored by Sohaib Alahmed, Lauren Ross, and Sean M.C. Smith, as the 2023 CERF Pritchard Award recipient.” “This award was […]

UMaine News published an article highlighting the work of Dr. Ross and ongoing plans to expand her research in Maine to other countries with funding from a Fulbright Scholarship in the upcoming school year.  https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2023/07/18/ross-embarks-on-fulbright-to-expand-estuary-research-beyond-u-s-borders/  

WPES PhD candidate, Bea Van Dam, is scheduled to defend her dissertation research on August 2 at 1 PM in Normal Smith Hall (Room 11) on U Maine’s Orono Campus. The dissertation title is “Scaling Up the Relevance of Land-Sea Connections in Coastal Bacteria Pollution Vulnerability”. Attendance can be in-person or remotely via online access. […]

Drs. Lauren Ross and Neil Fisher visited Islesboro Island this week to install tide gauges and meet with community members, Island Institute staff ,and high school students to talk about tidal measurements and sea level rise. They were joined by Sean Smith who collected exploratory marsh samples related the history of tidal dynamics on the […]