Climate Change Institute

  Aaron Putnam, assistant professor with the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, is searching for clues in Mongolia about what “caused the Earth to lurch out of the last ice age.” Kevin Stark, a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, is embedded with Putnam’s research team and is blogging about the […]

Mining.com reported University of Maine researchers have found a recent surge in uranium concentrations in the Antarctic can be linked to increased mining activity in Australia. UMaine climate scientists made the discovery during the first high-resolution continuous examination of a northern Antarctic Peninsula ice core. The team, which will publish the results of their research […]

  Uranium mining in Australia is polluting the Antarctic, about 6,000 nautical miles away. University of Maine climate scientists made the discovery during the first high-resolution continuous examination of a northern Antarctic Peninsula ice core. Ice core data reveal a significant increase in uranium concentration that coincides with open pit mining in the Southern Hemisphere, […]

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 […]