Climate Change Institute

Melting Himalayan glaciers are releasing decades of accumulated pollutants into downstream ecosystems, according to a new study. The new research in AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres finds chemicals used in pesticides that have been accumulating in glaciers and ice sheets around the world since the 1940s are being released as Himalayan glaciers melt as […]

Eos spoke with Jasmine Saros, a professor and associate director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, for an article on her new research that found Greenland is highly sensitive to recent warming trends. Ecosystems in this most rapidly warming part of the world are more sensitive to sudden climate shifts than […]

Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie called her grandmother each spring during her childhood when the rhododendrons bloomed in her hometown in Massachusetts. To celebrate, they’d go on a wildflower picnic in Moore State Park. McDonough MacKenzie still thoroughly enjoys “botanizing.” And the David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute also […]

Earth & Space Science News Citation: Miner, K. R. (2019), Uncontrolled chemical releases: A silent, growing threat, Eos, 100, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EO128537. Published on 17 July 2019. Uncontrolled Chemical Releases: A Silent, Growing Threat Uncontrolled releases of household, industrial, and agricultural chemicals during natural disasters pose an underappreciated hazard to humans and ecosystems. Here’s what we can […]

The New York Times quoted Kimberly Miner, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, in an article about new research linking extreme weather events to the release and spread of toxic chemicals. Extreme weather and fires, which are often intensified by climate change, can dislodge chemicals from soil, homes, industrial […]

The Portland Press Herald cited the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine in an article about a new climate report from the Union of Concerned Scientists that predicts Maine could see more “extreme heat” events in the near future. The report predicts a more than 10-fold increase in the number of 90-plus degree […]

Alice Kelley, an instructor in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences and research associate professor in the Climate Change Institute, contributed to a report by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS. “The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action,” was released by ICOMOS on July […]

Science Advances  19 Jun 2019: Vol. 5, no. 6, eaav7266 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav7266 Abstract Himalayan glaciers supply meltwater to densely populated catchments in South Asia, and regional observations of glacier change over multiple decades are needed to understand climate drivers and assess resulting impacts on glacier-fed rivers. Here, we quantify changes in ice thickness during the […]

New evidence shows that Arctic ecosystems undergo rapid, strong and pervasive environmental changes in response to climate shifts, even those of moderate magnitude, according to an international research team led by the University of Maine. Links between abrupt climate change and environmental response have long been considered delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, or […]