Climate Change Institute

DISASTER, CLIMATE, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH - M. HARAGUCHI
2019-11-15 15:00 (America/New_York) | 309 Boardman Hall
Disaster, Climate, and Sustainable Development – An Interdisciplinary Approach
Masa Haraguchi, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Friday, November 15, 2019 – 3:00 PM
309 Boardman Hall

Master’s Thesis Proposal Presentation: Developing a Long-term Perspective on the Sensitivity of Lake Trophic State Changes in Maine - Simona Lukasik
2019-11-25 10:00 | 138 Sawyer Environmental Research Building, 138 Sawyer Env. Res. Building, University of Maine
Master’s Thesis Proposal Presentation
Developing a Long-term Perspective on the
Sensitivity of Lake Trophic State Changes in Maine
Simona Lukasik

10:00 AM-Nov. 25th
Sawyer 138

PhD Dissertation Defense - Benjamin Burpee
2020-01-14 15:30 | 138 Sawyer Environmental Research Building, 138 Sawyer Env. Res. Building, University of Maine
Assessing the factors that alter ecological responses of cold, oligotrophic lakes to nutrient subsidies

PhD Dissertation Defense – Benjamin Burpee

3:30 pm, January 14th
138 Sawyer Hall
(Conference Room)

Spatial fingerprint of deglacial temperature change in eastern North America: More than one way to kill a spruce forest - Dr. Jack Williams
2020-01-30 16:00 | 200 Nutting Hall
Dr. Jack Williams, UW Madison
Thursday, January 30, 2020
4 pm, Nutting 100

The last deglaciation in eastern North America offers a classic system for studying climate-driven forest range dynamics during large and abrupt climate changes, but paleoclimate and paleofire records are surprisingly scarce. In this talk, I will first present new reconstructions of the spatial fingerprint of deglacial temperature variations in eastern North America, then focus on the collapse of spruce woodlands in the southern Great Lakes, to understand how temperature rises and intensified fire regimes drove forest collapse.

Ecological Responses to Climate Change; Lessons from the Past - Jack Williams
2020-01-31 19:00 | Sea Dog, 26 Front Street, Bangor, Maine

CONSERVATION PALEOBIOLOGY ON ACADIA’S MOUNTAINS - Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
2020-02-03 12:00 | 138 Sawyer Environmental Research Building, 138 Sawyer Env. Res. Building, University of Maine
CONSERVATION PALEOBIOLOGY ON ACADIA’S MOUNTAINS
Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
Second Century Stewardship Fellow
University of Maine

Monday, February 3, 2020, 12pm
138 Sawyer Conference Room

Abstract: Conservation practitioners depend on accurate assessments of climate change vulnerability in allocating limited resources to protect and steward natural resources. The subalpine plants on Acadia National Park’s open granite ridges have been interpreted as post-glacial tundra relicts, however paleoecological records above treeline are sparse and this assumption remains untested. Could subalpine plant communities in Acadia represent persistent microrefugia, perhaps indicating high resilience in the face of regional and global climate change? Globally, montane and alpine communities are highly vulnerable to climate change, however there is evidence that high elevations and coastal mountains in the northeastern United States are not warming as rapidly as the rest of the region. I combine historical ecological data from a 19th century flora and paleoecological data from lake sediment cores to reconstruct vegetation assemblages on Mount Desert Island’s eponymous bare mountain tops throughout the Holocene. This ongoing work includes species-level floristic change over the past century and decadal-to-centennial vegetation dynamics from new pollen and macrofossil records collected at Sargent Mountain Pond and supports conservation management in the park.

A look into the recent history of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica - S. Braddock - Brown Bag Seminar
2020-02-05 12:00 | 100 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine
Brown Bag Seminar
Scott Braddock
A look into the recent history of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
Wednesday – 12:00 noon
February 5, 2020

100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

The effect of particle shape on size distribution analysis in the South Pole Ice Core - A. Chesler- Brown Bag Seminar
2020-02-05 12:00 | 100 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine
Brown Bag Seminar
Aaron Chesler

The effect of particle shape on size distribution analysis in the South Pole Ice Core
Wednesday – 12:00 noon
February 5, 2020

100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

Episodic Saharan dust events to the European Alps over the past 2000 years - H. Clifford
2020-02-12 12:00 | 100 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine
Brown Bag Seminar

Episodic Saharan dust events to the European Alps over the past 2000 years
Heather Clifford

February 12, 2020
Wednesday – 12:00 noon
100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

Analysis of the Historical Incidence of Mid-Autumn Wind Storms in New England - J. Simonson
2020-02-19 12:00 | 100 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine
Brown Bag Seminar
Julia Simonson
Analysis of the Historical Incidence of Mid-Autumn Wind Storms in New England

Wednesday – 12:00 noon
February 19, 2020
100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

USDA FIELD STAFF USE OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER RESOURCES: PERSPECTIVES ON RESPONDING TO CHANGE - Dr. Rachel Schattman
2020-03-02 12:00 | Bryand Global Sciences Center – Room 307
USDA FIELD STAFF USE OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER RESOURCES: PERSPECTIVES ON RESPONDING TO CHANGE

Dr. Rachel Schattman
Assistant Professor of Sustainable Agriculture
University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture

Monday, March 2, 2020, 12pm
307 Bryand Global Science Center

Abstract: Agricultural service providers often work closely with producers, and are well positioned to include weather and climate change information in the services they provide. By doing so, they can help producers reduce risks due to climate variability and change. A national survey of United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) field staff (n = 4621) was conducted in 2016, accompanied by a similar survey of field staff from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, n = 1893). The survey was designed to assess FSA and NRCS employees’ use of climate and weather-related data and explore their perspectives on climate change, attitudes toward adaptation and concerns regarding climate- and weather-driven risks. Findings suggest that there are opportunities to increase employee exposure and proficiency with weather and climate information to meet the needs of American farmers by helping them to reduce risk.

Exploring New Children and Camelid Sacrificial Sites in Huanchaco Bay: The Peak of the Iceberg? - Gabriel Prieto
2020-03-03 17:00 | Bodwell Area, Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, United States
Gabriel Prieto
Anthropology Department, University of Florida
Exploring New Children and Camelid Sacrificial Sites in Huanchaco Bay: The Peak of the Iceberg?
Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 5:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public
In the Bodwell Area, Collins Center for the Arts

In 2019, archaeologists announced the discovery of a mass sacrifice of children and camelids at Huanchaquito, on the North Coast of Peru as a response to a mega ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation Event) occurred around 1400-1450 AD. Subsequent excavations revealed three new sites with evidence of human and animal sacrificial practices during the Chimu period (1100-1450 AD) and even during the Inca presence in this region (1450/1470 – 1532 AD). Recent C14 dates confirm that some mass sacrificial events of children and camelids started around 1200 cal AD, suggesting that this practice is significantly earlier than previously thought. This discovery challenges the crisis-driven response theory for mass sacrifices of children and camelids and opens a new scenario in which the Chimu society used ritual violence as part of their religious and political agenda. Moreover, current data suggests that potentially the Chimu society may have had a coastal version of Capacocha, an Inca ceremony in which children and young adolescents were sacrificed on behalf of the Inca emperor under different circumstances.

Understanding Summer Temperatures in the North Pacific Region - Igna Kindstedt - Brown Bag Seminar
2020-03-04 12:00 | 100 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine
Brown Bag Seminar

Understanding Summer Temperatures in the North Pacific Region
Inga Kindstedt

Wednesday – 12:00 noon
March 4, 2020

100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

The National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Extreme Mt. Everest Expedition - Dr. Paul A. Mayewski
2020-03-06 17:30 - 18:30 | Hutchinson Center, 80 Belmont Ave., Belfast, Maine
World-renowned climate scientist, explorer Mayewski to talk about Everest expedition March 6

World-renowned climate scientist and explorer Paul Mayewski will give a free, public talk titled “The National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Extreme Mt. Everest Expedition,” 5:30–6:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, in the auditorium at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast.

The goal of the two-month multinational, multidisciplinary National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Extreme Mt. Everest Expedition was to document people’s impacts on one of the planet’s most severe environments.

Mayewski, director of the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, was the expedition leader and lead scientist for the international project that involved 55 science partners, National Geographic staff, journalists, Sherpas and porters.

From Base Camp at an altitude of 17,514 feet, he directed the biological, geological, glaciological, meteorological, mapping and multimedia enterprise which took place all over the mountain, both at lower elevations and nearly to the 29,029-foot summit.

Water flowing from Himalayan glaciers is a resource for energy, food and consumption for about 20% of the world’s population. One billion people living in the watershed will be stressed due to the shrinking of the glaciers, Mayewski says. Initially from flooding and landslides, and later due to drought.

This marked Mayewski’s fourth scientific expedition on Everest, which Tibetans call Chomolungma and Nepalis call Sagarmatha for “mother of the sky.” Mayewski has led nearly 60 research expeditions around the globe, many in Antarctica, where he was the first person to explore large tracts of the continent. “Mayewski Peak,” a summit in Antarctica’s Saint Johns Range, is named in his honor.

A video, a summit suit, a drill used to secure the highest ice core in the world, and other items from the expedition will be displayed. For additional information, read the National Geographic and UMaine Today stories.

About the Hutchinson Center:
The Hutchinson Center is an outreach center for the University of Maine in Orono, that serves as an educational and cultural center for the midcoast area. It is named for University of Maine President Emeritus Frederick E. Hutchinson. The mission of the Hutchinson Center is to broaden access to University of Maine academic and non-degree programs and services, lifelong learning opportunities, and professional and career development experiences using innovative approaches that increase synergy among University of Maine System entities, University of Maine departments and divisions, and that engage a wider Maine community. This is accomplished by providing (1) University of Maine System degree and non-degree programming in a variety of live, online, distance, and hybrid formats, including professional and career development opportunities, and academic counseling and support services for students, especially for non-traditional students, (2) conference and meeting facilities and services, and (3) by partnering with the local community to promote education, lifelong learning, cultural, and economic development opportunities that serve local communities and the University of Maine.

About the University of Maine:
The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state’s land grant and sea grant university. As Maine’s flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community institutions in the Northeast and attracts students from Maine and 49 other states, and 67 countries. It currently enrolls 11,240 total undergraduate and graduate students who can directly participate in groundbreaking research working with world- class scholars. The University of Maine offers 35 doctoral programs and master’s degrees in 85 fields; more than 90 undergraduate majors and academic programs; and one of the oldest and most prestigious honors programs in the U.S. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide aimed at conserving energy, recycling and adhering to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine, visit umaine.edu.

Holocene Variations in the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies Developed from Lake Records in the Falkland Islands - Meghan Spoth - Brown Bag Seminar
2020-03-11 12:00
Brown Bag Seminar

Holocene Variations in the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies Developed from Lake Records in the Falkland Islands
Meghan Spoth

Wednesday – 12:00 noon
March 11, 2020

100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

Interactions between the land-terminating Walcott and Howchin Glaciers and adjacent Ross Sea ice since the Last Glacial Maximum in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica - Mariana Miles - Brown Bag Seminar
2020-03-11 12:00
Brown Bag Seminar

Interactions between the land-terminating Walcott and Howchin Glaciers and adjacent Ross Sea ice since the Last Glacial Maximum in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica
Maraina Miles

Wednesday – 12:00 noon
March 11, 2020

100 Bryand Global Sciences Center

Matthew Farragher - Master's Thesis Proposal
2020-06-09 15:00 - 16:00
Effects of changing dissolved organic carbon concentrations on vertical habitat gradients in lakes of Acadia National Park
Matthew Farragher, M.S. Thesis Proposal
School of Biology and Ecology, Climate Change Institute
Tuesday, June 9th – 3:00pm EST

Join via Zoom: https://maine.zoom.us/j/98281396006 Phone: +1 646 876 9923 Meeting ID: 982 8139 6006

Master's Defense - Simona Lukasik
2020-08-10 09:00 - 10:00
DEVELOPING A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE ON THE SENSITIVITY OF LAKE TROPHIC STATE CHANGES IN MAINE
Simona Lukasik
Monday, Aug. 10 at 9:00 AM
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android
https://maine.zoom.us/j/7083679268?pwd=[REDACTED]
Password: [REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 708 367 9268

THE DEVIL’S HEAD SITE AND THE LATE WOODLAND(CERAMIC) TO CONTACT PERIOD TRANSITION IN DOWNEAST MAINE - Dr. Gabe Hrynick
2020-09-21 12:00 - 13:00
Dr. Gabe Hrynick
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton
Monday, September 21, 2020, 12noon
ZOOM – Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android:
https://maine.zoom.us/j/94915919868?pwd=[REDACTED]
Password: [REDACTED]

Abstract: The Far Northeast of North America experienced some of the earliest contact by Europeans of anywhere in the Americas, making this period crucial to understanding the history of subsequent Indigenous and European interactions. Despite the period’s significance to Wabanaki people and scholars, there are relatively few historical records from this Protohistoric period, and archaeological understanding of the region has focused primarily on highly visible elaborate burials, especially from Mi’kmaw territory. In contrast, the Devil’s Head site in Calais, Maine, is an example of a Late Woodland and Protohistoric period habitation site. In this talk I offer it as an example of some of the changes that may have been underway at and just before contact. I also will discuss the sea level rise, bioturbation, and visibility problems that may have obscured Protohistoric habitation sites in the region’s archaeological record. I conclude with some thoughts on next research steps for understanding the contact period in the Far Northeast, emphasizing Indigenous interactions in response to Contact.

Research Seminar - S. Campbell
2020-09-23 12:00
Dr. Seth Campbell
“The History and Future of Ice in Alaska”

Wednesday – 12:00 pm EST
September 23rd, 2020

Zoom Link:
https://maine.zoom.us/j/91531536473

Thesis Proposal Seminar Announcement - Madelyn Woods
2020-09-25 15:00
A Key to Past Ocean Temperatures:
Mg/Ca of Foraminiferal Calcite in the North Atlantic
Thesis Proposal Seminar Announcement for:
Madelyn Woods

Friday September 25th, 2020 – 3:00 pm EST
Zoom Link: https://maine.zoom.us/j/95794101372
Advisory Committee: Dr. Katherine Allen (Chair), Dr. Huijie Xue, Dr. Karl Kreutz, Dr. Bärbel Hönisch (LDEO), and Dr. David Fields (BLOS)

Engaging with Indigenous Communities through Geoscience Education Research - Dr. Darryl Reano
2020-09-30 12:00
EARTH AND CLIMATE SCIENCE RESEARCH SEMINAR
Wednesday – 12:00 pm EST
September 30th, 2020
Zoom Link:
https://maine.zoom.us/j/91531536473

Dr. Darryl Reano
“Engaging with Indigenous Communities through Geoscience Education Research.”

28th Annual Harold W. Borns, Jr. Symposium
2020-10-05 12:00 - 13:00, 2020-10-19 12:00 - 13:00, 2020-10-26 12:00, 2020-11-02 12:00, 2020-11-16 12:00
The 2020 Virtual Borns Symposium will begin on Monday, October 5, 2020 from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. This virtual event will take place weekly as an one hour Zoom event during the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 academic semesters.
This weekly one hour Zoom format will allow 3 CCI graduate students to present their papers during each one hour Zoom session. Each presentation will be 12 minutes in length with 2-3 minutes for Q&A. Each week’s session will start with a summary of the previous week’s talks by one or two grad students.
Presentation schedules will be posted on Google Drive. All Virtual Borns Symposium Zoom sessions will be recorded on the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine YouTube channel under the HW Borns 2020-2021 playlist.

CONSTRAINING INTERGLACIAL ICE SHEET ELEVATIONS IN INTERIOR WEST ANTARCTICA - Dr. Robert Ackert
2020-11-09 12:00
CONSTRAINING INTERGLACIAL ICE SHEET
ELEVATIONS IN INTERIOR WEST ANTARCTICA
Dr. Robert Ackert
Research Scientist
Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Harvard University
Monday, November 9, 2020, 12 PM
Zoom Link
https://maine.zoom.us/j/85221937569?pwd=[REDACTED]

Abstract: Determining the Antarctic ice response to global warming has been a focus of Antarctic research for decades due to its potential contribution to global sea level. Constraints on ice sheet geometry during past interglacial periods would provide empirical evidence for smaller ice volumes. However, such evidence is difficult to access because it is covered by the current ice sheet. We are using shallow (<100 m) drilling along the ice sheet margin to obtain cores of the subglacial bedrock in which to measure cosmogenic nuclides. These nuclides are only produced when the surfaces are exposed to cosmic radiation. Thus, their presence indicates the rock surface has been ice-free and the adjacent the ice surface was lower than the site. 10Be and 26Al concentrations in samples up to 28 m below the present ice surface in the Ohio Range
indicate long exposure with intermittent ice cover during the last few hundred thousand years. Drilling at Mt.Waesche, near the dome of the ice sheet in Marie Byrd Land, is scheduled for next year. There we have a unique opportunity to constrain ice elevations during the last interglacial because we have identified target lava flows that were erupted from ~79 ka to ~123 ka. Ice sheet models suggest the ice sheet surface at the Ohio Range and at Mt. Waesche is several hundred meters lower during collapse events. These depths are accessible by the IDO drill rigs and will be the target of future projects.

VIRTUAL: Indigenous Land Awareness & Acknowledgment in Outdoor Recreation
2020-11-09 14:00 - 15:00
Monday, November 9 from 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Whose land are we recreating on? What does it mean to acknowledge Indigenous lands? How does social media and location-tagging come into play? And how does this all relate to the lands on and around our campus? These questions and more will be addressed in a virtual discussion with Dr. Darren J. Ranco, Chair of the UMaine Native American Programs and Associate Professor of Anthropology and James Francis, Director of the Cultural and Historic Preservation Department for the Penobscot Nation. RVSP by Friday November 6 to lauren.jacobs@maine.edu to receive the link.

Sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, School of Kinesiology, Physical Education & Athletic Training, Maine Bound, and the Outdoor Leadership Program. These presentations are supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Fund.

Dissertation Proposal Defense: Alessandro Mereghetti
2020-11-19 14:30
Dissertation Proposal Defense:
Investigating the role of large herbivores in Beringia: past, present and future
Alessandro Mereghetti, Ph.D. student

Thursday, November 19th @ 2:30 pm EST

Join us virtually: https://maine.zoom.us/j/84767670586?pwd=[REDACTED]
For more information, please contact
alessandro.mereghetti@maine.edu or jacquelyn.gill@maine.edu
