Climate Change Institute

University of Maine archaeologist Dan Sandweiss talked with Hakai Magazine for an article titled “The Civilizing Power of Nature” that indicates extreme weather 05 have created opportunities for radical transformation of Peruvian coastal life. While studying ancient societies along the Peruvian coast, Sandweiss found evidence that El Niño 05 have spurred the rise of the […]

Daniel Sandweiss, a professor of anthropology and Quaternary and climate studies at the University of Maine, was quoted in a ScienceNews article about earliest New World settlers. Researchers have discovered 39 stone artifacts in Monte Verde, Chile, nine of which date to between at least 18,500 and 17,000. The discovery challenges a popular view in […]

  When Samuel Belknap, Ph.D. anthropology and environmental policy student at the University of Maine, heard an increasing number of fishermen express concerns about the spread of a lobster shell disease and its potential impacts on Maine’s iconic industry, he was intrigued. “The thread that ran through all of these conversations was the need for […]

The European Geosciences Union is honoring Paul Mayewski for his achievements in ice research and climatic change. In April, the director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine will receive a 2016 Hans Oeschger Medal in Vienna, Austria. The EGU Division on Climate: Past, Present & Future established the medal in recognition […]

  Ivan Fernandez, a professor of soil science who studies the biogeochemistry of ecosystems, has been appointed chair of the Secondary NAAQS Review Panel for Oxides of Nitrogen and Sulfur, a panel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). He was appointed to CASAC earlier this year. Under the […]

Jacquelyn Gill, a palaeoecologist at the University of Maine, was quoted in a Nature article on the positive and negative effects conferences and networking can have on career development. Conferences can offer many opportunities for early-career scientists to meet mentors and collaborators, as well as impress potential employers, according to the article. But bad behavior, […]

The extinction of mammoths, ground sloths and other large plant-eaters thousands of years ago triggered shifts in global habitats and changes in ecosystems, says University of Maine paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill. The assistant professor in the School of Biology and Ecology and the Climate Change Institute says fossils and other records from the deep past provide […]

Researchers at the University of Maine wanted to know how the Antarctic ice sheet reacts to climate change. To find out, they dove into the past to learn how the ice sheet behaved during the last glaciation, when the glacier achieved its greatest extent and what factors contributed to its ultimate retreat. In order to […]

Journal Tribune cited a Maine Policy Review report written by Joseph Kelley, a professor of marine geology in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences and Climate Change Institute, in an article about Wells Beach erosion. The article focused on a public hearing held by the Board of Selectmen to discuss purchasing […]

On June 26, as various school systems came to the end of their academic calendars, 17 Maine high school and middle school teachers and 12 science researchers gathered around small tables at the University of Maine, all with the same topic in mind. Climate change. The group participated in a climate science teacher workshop led […]