Schoodic Institute Science Symposium

On October 1 , 2014, Schoodic Institute hosted the Acadia National Park Science Symposium that highlighted research being done in and around the National Park with a focus on "our understanding of rapid environmental change." Speakers included Esperanza Stancioff, an Extension Educator with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Abe Miller-Rushing, Science Coordinator at Acadia National Park and a member of the National Park Service, Bob Page with the National Park Service's Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Jasmine Saros, a University of Maine Climate Change Institute researcher who has been monitoring Jordan Pond in Acadia, and Elizabeth Wolkovich, a researcher with Harvard University who focuses on phenology. Additional projects were highlighted during two poster sessions. 

Esperanza summarized the work of an interdisciplinary team and the town of Ellsworth to address storm water overflow and infrastructure vulnerability; an issue with ecological and economic ramifications if climate change predictions that Maine will experience more extreme rainfall events are realized. MPBN highlighted the project through a short documentary, "Culvert Operations."

Symposium attendees collecting phenology data.

During lunch, people were invited to collect phenology data for Acadia's monitoring program. The data are used to track changes in individual plants, but also to better understand how data collected by citizen scientists can be utilized. Park staff have also setup wildlife cameras at their phenology monitoring sites to capture footage of species interactions and couple bird behavior with plant phenology data. Shifts in the timing of different events like flowering or the production of fruit can have major implications for other species that might rely on that plant for a food source. For example, flowering and fruiting may be shifting earlier in the season due to warming temperatures, yet the timing of bird migration is not shifting at the same rate so migrating birds may miss a critical food source as they migrate to their seasonal nesting or wintering grounds. Elizabeth Wolkovich is researching how changes in temperature and phenology may give exotic species the competitive advantage of native plant species.

The science symposium was an inspiring event, and I am looking forward to collaborating with these speakers and researchers as we continue to grow and develop the field station's research agenda on Hurricane!

OBFS & NAML Annual Meeting in Woods Hole

View of Lillie Laboratory on MBL's campus in Woods Hole.

On September 22-23, 2014, I attended the joint annual meeting of the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) and the National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML) at Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole. Field station and lab directors from across the country gathered together to discuss potential funding opportunities, infrastructure and equipment, research initiatives, the national policy landscape, the importance of these facilities in providing people with a connection to nature, and best practices for effectively communicating science. Much of the conversation focused on environmental monitoring networks and collaborative research: if field stations are able to link or install compatible environmental sensors and implement similar data collection protocols at each site, the data can be used both to answer questions at both a local and regional spatial scale. Additionally, collaboration between field stations will allow us all to capitalize on the strengths each facility has to tackle complex environmental problems and develop creative solutions. The group acknowledged that the funding landscape is changing and becoming more challenging as the Federal Government continues to reduce funds allocated to research; however, opportunities do exist for creative partnerships and funding models to continue the important scientific and educational work being done at field stations. 

Jerry Schubel from the Aquarium of the Pacific and Chair of the Committee on Value and Sustainability of Biological Field Stations, Marine Laboratories, and Nature Reserves in 21st Century Science, Education, and Public Outreach gave a public briefing about a report recently released by the National Research Council of the National Academies entitled "Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century," in which the committee provided recommendations to field stations and marine labs for innovative solutions to overcome current challenges. They also created a short video to promote the value of field stations, which you can view here.

It is always helpful to hear the perspectives of directors and researchers at other field stations, and I look forward to continuing to network and collaborate with the Gulf of Maine field stations as we form the Hurricane Island field research station.

We Aren't Being Shellfish, We're Just Hoping to Grow Them!

This is one technique for growing scallops called "ear hanging," which uses plastic Age-pins to secure the scallops in pairs along a line.

Cait and I had a great meeting with Dana Morse, on Monday, April 7th to talk about opportunities for Hurricane Island to set up educational aquaculture sites around the island. Before we can set up a site, we need to identify what types of shellfish we want to grow, how we want to grow them (bottom seeding, bottom cages, floating gear...the list goes on) and, most importantly, we need to identify good sites with the right conditions for our shellfish, and then apply for Limited-Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) licenses through the DMR. Dana has a cool blog that chronicles his extensive work and research into shellfish aquaculture, and serves as a great additional resource explaining all of the different techniques that exist to raise oysters, scallops, mussels, and clams in Maine waters. Dana is going to help us identify sites for our LPA's this May, and then we hope to apply for a license and be able to start growing in the spring of 2015!

Gulf of Maine Field Research Station Workshop

Workshop attendees tour the Bowdoin Coastal Studies Center in Harpswell, ME. 

Alice, HIF Science Educator, and I had the opportunity to participate in a weekend Gulf of Maine field station gathering (March 28th - 30th, 2014) at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. Participants included representatives from 12 Gulf of Maine field research stations, including: the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and the Coastal Center at Shortridge (Bates College), Bowdoin College Marine Laboratory & Coastal Studies Center and Bowdoin Scientific Station at Kent Island, College of the Atlantic's McCormick Blair Mount Desert Rock Field Station and Great Duck Island Eno Marine Field Station, Suffolk University's R.S. Friedman Field Station and Cobscook Bay Laboratory, Schoodic Institute's Schoodic Education and Research Center, Shoals Marine Lab which is associated with the University of New Hampshire and Cornell University, the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station, the UMass Marine Station at Hodgkins Cove, and Acadia University's Evelyn and Morrill Richardson Field Station in Biology on Bon Portage Island.

We came away from this gathering excited about all of the opportunities there are for collaboration in the Gulf of Maine, and we look forward to becoming part of a formal network of field stations that will coordinate monitoring efforts, share resources, and leverage our collective expertise to promote the role of place-based science in our changing world. We gained invaluable knowledge about how other field stations operate, their research agendas, and how Hurricane Island's Field Research Station can fit into but also build upon and improve the research capacity in the Gulf of Maine. Stay tuned-- more Gulf of Maine Field Station Network updates soon!

DMR hearing in Bucksport

A fisherman from Bucksport expresses his concern about the lack of data on mercury levels in crabs. 

On Monday night (March 17, 2014), I attended the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) hearing held in Bucksport regarding the two-year closure to lobster and crab harvesting. The closure is located at the mouth of the Penobscot River and extends approximately 7 square miles. The hearing was an opportunity for the public to voice concerns about or support for the implementation of the closure. 

DMR officials summarized the data they had reviewed and their process for making this decision. DMR believes that an area closure is the appropriate measure to protect the public from the levels of mercury recorded in lobster samples collected at the mouth of the river. Sampling in other areas of Penobscot Bay revealed that high mercury levels seemed contained to a small area, and the closure is estimated to affect approximately 10 lobster and crab harvesters. DMR acknowledged that those harvesters will have to shift some of their gear outside of the closed area and hopes that other fishermen will understand and accommodate the shift. 

Harvesters raised concerns about how lobsters and crabs take up methylmercury. It’s commonly believed that lobsters take up methylmercury from the sediment and from what they eat (more info on bioaccumulation here), but there is a lack of understanding on how quickly lobsters take it up directly from water.... so the question remains: will harvested lobsters stored in the closed area waters take up mercury from the surrounding water while they are waiting to be sold?

Going forward, the DMR will work with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These agencies plan to undertake additional data collection year round over the next two years. To ensure their ability to compare data sets, the state agencies will follow the same protocol used to collect data for the independent study carried out in 2006 - 2013. 

The mercury is believed to have come from HoltraChem plant in Orrington which is now closed, but operated from 1967-1982. A 2002 court ruling initiated the study on mercury levels in the area. For more background on the issue, please see the following articles from: The Working Waterfront  and the PenBay Pilot.