Climate Change Institute

Smithsonian.com reported Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine, will co-host a new podcast that focuses on climate change and humanity’s role in shaping it. Through the “Warm Regards” podcast, Gill and fellow co-hosts Eric Holthaus, a meteorologist and frequent Slate contributor, and Andy Revkin, a veteran environment writer for the New York […]

University of Maine agriculture professor Susan Erich, biology professor Emeritus George Jacobson, paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill and Climate Change Institute data all were sources for a Bangor Daily News article on how climate change could impact Aroostook County. Hardiness zones, calculated by using the average lowest winter temperatures, have been moving north in recent decades. In […]

Kimberley Rain Miner, Ph.D. candidate in Earth and climate sciences at the University of Maine, was recently selected as a Switzer Environmental Fellow by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. This year, the Switzer Foundation awarded 20 fellowships of $15,000 each for emerging environmental leaders who are pursuing graduate degrees and are dedicated to positive […]

Three University of Maine graduate students have received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which recognizes outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. The three fellows awarded in 2016 — incoming students Anna McGinn and William Kochtitzky in the Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences, respectively, […]

The Bangor Daily News reported on a new book written by Ronald Davis, professor emeritus at the University of Maine School of Biology and Ecology and Climate Change Institute. Davis’ book, “Bogs and Fens: A Guide to Peatland Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada,” was released June 7 by the University Press […]

  For many Mainers, ice-skating and snowmobiling weren’t part of last December’s holiday break. There was open water on lakes and green grass throughout much of the state as daytime high temperatures reached into the 50s. In fact, December 2015 through February 2016 — the meteorological winter — was the warmest or near warmest on […]

Glacial ice core records indicate that humans have significantly altered the atmosphere in Central Asia during the 20th century, say climate scientists from the University of Maine. Climate Change Institute researchers say evidence from ice cores extracted from Inilchek Glacier in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan reveals that rapid growth of industry and agriculture […]

Aaron Putnam, the George H. Denton Assistant Professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences, was quoted in articles by The Christian Science Monitor and New Scientist about the effects weather had on the fall of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire swept through Eastern Europe until an abrupt withdrawal in 1242, according to […]

ORONO — When Laura Garey wades into tidal marshes at sunrise to survey saltmarsh sparrows, the University of Maine graduate student also spies deflated balloons, trash and pollutants. Tidal marshes — reservoirs at the intersection of land and sea — also are increasingly being damaged by coastal development, sea-level rise and more frequent storm surges. […]

With the arrival of spring, many Mainers head outside to hike, mow lawns, picnic, and garden. But working and playing outdoors can bring people in contact with deer ticks and tick-borne diseases, including Lyme disease. “Maine in 2014 had the highest incidence of Lyme disease of all the states in the country,” says Susan Elias, […]