Climate Change Institute

Dr. Ivan Fernandez participated in the Before The Flood film screening and panel discussion on Thursday, Feb. 21.   Before the Food presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent the […]

Spring wildflowers may face challenges in a warming climate. That’s according to researchers who combined their findings with historical observations collected by philosopher and author Henry David Thoreau. Conservation biologists Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie of the University of Maine and Richard Primack of Boston University presented Thoreau’s scientific observations from the 1850s in Concord, Massachusetts to […]

Sean Birkel, Maine State Climatologist and a research assistant professor at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, was quoted in a WGME (Channel 13 in Portland) report on climate change and lake ice. Climate change could result in less lake ice in the near future, which would present problems for ice fishermen — and […]

Four University of Maine students and alumni have been recommended as semifinalists for the 2019–20 Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the largest exchange program in the country that offers opportunities for recent graduates in more than 160 countries. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase […]

News Center Maine spoke with Sean Birkel, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, and Michelle Volk, a graduate student at UMaine, about research they’re conducting on ticks. Climate change and the bacteria carried by ticks are helping extend the range of ticks to include environments in which they previously […]

Paul Mayewski, director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, spoke on NBC Nightly News about climate change and the polar vortex. NBC reported melting sea ice and ocean temperatures at the North Pole have caused the walls of the jet stream, or polar vortex, to break open, allowing arctic air to […]

Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies, co-wrote a short monograph on the analysis of animal remains and climate change from Siches, an early-to-middle Holocene fishing site he excavated in northern Peru. “Fishing on the Frontier: Vertebrate Remains from Amotape, Siches, and Honda Phase Occupations at Sitio Siches (Pv 7-19), Perú,” is in the […]

The Associated Press cited the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer in an article about a deep freeze in the Upper Midwest. Schools closed and warming centers opened across the Midwest when temperatures plummeted Jan. 25, according to the article. Even colder weather was expected for the following week. Temporary harsh cold does not disprove global […]

A Bangor Daily News editorial titled “Maine can change the debate on climate change” mentioned a report from the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. The report by Sean Birkel and Paul Mayewski analyzed historical climate trends and potential impacts of climate change on coastal Maine, especially the agriculture and fishing industries. The […]

Eos reported on research led by Jessica Scheick, conducted while a research assistant and Ph.D. student in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences, about icebergs and their potential to help predict sea level rise. The future of sea level rise is affected in part by the contours of the seafloor. If […]