Digital Commons Network^™

Cnh: Fine-Scale Dynamics Of Human Adaptation In Coupled Natural And Social Systems: An Integrated Computational Approach Applied To Three Fisheries, James A. Wilson, James Acheson, Robert Steneck, Yong Chen, Teresa R. Johnson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The purpose of this project is to gain a better understanding of the way competition between individual fishermen lead to the emergence of private incentives and informal social arrangements that are (or are not) consistent with conservation of the resource. These informal arrangements and incentives are important because they help us understand the extent to which private interests might strengthen or weaken on-going resource management and, consequently, the sustainability of coupled human and natural systems. The broad hypothesis driving the study is that the informal social structure that emerges from competitive interactions among fishermen reflects the particular circumstances of the …

Iii: Small: Information Integration And Human Interaction For Indoor And Outdoor Spaces, Michael Worboys, Nicholas Giudice

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The goal of this research project is to provide a framework model that integrates existing models of indoor and outdoor space, and to use this model to develop an interactive platform for navigation in mixed indoor and outdoor spaces. The user should feel the transition between inside and outside to be seamless, in terms of the navigational support provided. The approach consists of integration of indoors and outdoors on several levels: conceptual models (ontologies), formal system designs, data models, and human interaction. At the conceptual level, the project draws on existing ontologies as well as examining the "affordances" that the …

Iii:Small: Information Integration And Human Interaction For Indoor And Outdoor Spaces, Michael Warboys, Nicholas Giudice

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The goal of this research project is to provide a framework model that integrates existing models of indoor and outdoor space, and to use this model to develop an interactive platform for navigation in mixed indoor and outdoor spaces. The user should feel the transition between inside and outside to be seamless, in terms of the navigational support provided. The approach consists of integration of indoors and outdoors on several levels: conceptual models (ontologies), formal system designs, data models, and human interaction. At the conceptual level, the project draws on existing ontologies as well as examining the "affordances" that the …

An Economic Analysis Of Wild Bee Pollination In Lowbush Blueberry Production, Francis A. Drummond

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The purpose of this project is to determine the relative economic values of wild bee pollinators and commercial honeybees in lowbush blueberry production for individual Maine farms. The lowbush blueberry requires insect pollination in order to set fruit. Most farmers rent colonies of the non-native honeybee for pollination services, but wild, native bees are also effective pollinators. This project aims to provide growers with the means to assess the pollination needs of individual fields and to understand the levels of pollination possible if honeybees are not available. In order to achieve these goals, the relative abundance and species diversity of …

Collaborative Research: Timing And Structure Of The Last Glacial Maximum And Termination In Southern Peru: Implications For The Role Of The Tropics In Climate Change, Brenda L. Hall

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The role of the tropics in climate change has important implications for understanding both orbital-scale and abrupt climate variations. Yet our ability to assess tropical behavior during major climate events, such as the last glacial maximum (LGM), is limited by poor spatial coverage and insufficient control on sample ages. This project will address this problem by developing well-dated records of glacial fluctuations from the LGM through the termination and late-glacial period at Nevados Coropuna and Allinccapac in southern Peru and use these data in numerical simulations of glacier mass balance and local climate. These sites allow an examination of glacier …

Reu Site: Explore It! Building The Next Generation Of Sustainable Forest Bioproduct Researchers, David Neivandt, Darrell W. Donahue

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The major goal of the project is to create the next generation of sustainable forest bioproduct researchers through providing them with an outstanding and relevant research experience.

Reu Site: Explore It! Building The Next Generation Of Sustainable Forest Bioproduct Researchers, David J. Neivandt, Darrell W. Donahue

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This three-year REU Site program builds on the substantial research strengths at the University of Maine. The focus on sustainable forest bioproducts is highly topical and of great global importance in the area of sustainable energy alternatives.

Ten US undergraduate participants will conduct research advancing their knowledge of the field in general and one of the thematic elements in detail, specifically:

1) sustainability and life cycle analysis,
2) feedstock extraction/modification,
3) process control and sensing,
4) nanomaterial production and utilization, and
5) new product development. In addition the program includes an international component whereby, six Chilean students on a mutual …

Sensitivity Of The Antarctic Ice Sheet To Climate Change Over The Last Two Glacial/Interglacial Cycles, Brenda Hall, George H. Denton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This project was designed to develop knowledge of the extent of the Ross Sea ice sheet during the last two glaciations and to develop a chronology for the last glacial maximum and penultimate glaciation. To this end, we had the following goals:

1) Map the extent of the Ross Sea ice sheet along the western coast of McMurdo Sound from Taylor Valley to the southern Royal Society Range.
2) Develop a radiocarbon chronology for the last glacial maximum from dates of algal mats within moraines.
3) Produce a uranium-thorium chronology to gain information on the timing of the penultimate glaciation. …

Sensitivity Of The Antarctic Ice Sheet To Climate Change Over The Last Two Glacial/Interglacial Cycles, Brenda L. Hall, George H. Denton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This award supports a project to investigate the sensitivity of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) to global climate change over the last two Glacial/Interglacial cycles. The intellectual merit of the project is that despite its importance to Earth's climate system, we currently lack a full understanding of AIS sensitivity to global climate change. This project will reconstruct and precisely date the history of marine-based ice in the Ross Sea sector over the last two glacial/interglacial cycles, which will enable a better understanding of the potential driving mechanisms (i.e., sea-level rise, ice dynamics, ocean temperature variations) for ice fluctuations. This will …

Dc: Small: Energy-Aware Coordinated Caching In Cluster-Based Storage Systems, Yifeng Zhu

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The main goal of this project is to improve the performance and energy efficiency of I/O (Input/Output) operations of large-scale cluster computing platforms.

The major activities include:

1) characterize the memory access workloads;
2) investigate the new and emerging new storage and memory devices, such as SSD and PCM, on I/O performance.
(3) study energy-efficient buffer and cache replacement algorithms,
(4) leveraging SSD as a new caching device to improve the energy efficiency and performance of I/O performance

Dc:Small: Energy-Aware Coordinated Caching In Cluster-Based Storage Systems, Yifeng Zhu

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

As the computing capacity increases rapidly in large-scale cluster computing platforms, power management becomes an increasingly important concern. This project focuses on the research of reducing disk and memory power consumption through energy-aware cooperative caching in cluster-based storage systems. The project leverages I/O characteristics of scientific applications and dynamic power management features of disk drives and memory chips to reduce I/O energy consumption. This project involves three components: (1) investigate program context based pattern detection to predict I/O activities in the operating systems, (2) investigate disk energy aware cooperative cache management schemes, and (3) prototype the management schemes and incorporate …

Collaborative Research: Globec Panregional Synthesis: Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystems: Response To Natural And Anthropogenic Climate Forcing, Andrew C. Thomas

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This is a Collaborative project POBEX (www.POBEX.org) under the the overall direction of M. DiLorenzo, GaTech. A separate FINAL report was submitted by DiLorenzo for the overall project in 2013. Using US and international observational datasets combined with physical and biological models, this project investigates the mechanisms of climate-related variability in three Pacific boundary ecosystems: Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and California Current System (CCS) referred to as the Northeast Pacific (NEP), the Humboldt or Peru-Chile Current System (PCCS), and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) region. The research goals of this project can be summarized as follows:

(1) Assess to what extent, …

Collaborative Research:Globec Pan-Regional Synthesis: Pacific Ocean Boundary Ecosystems: Response To Natural And Anthropogenic Climate Forcing, Andrew C. Thomas

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Intellectual Merits: Large-scale decadal Pacific climate indices such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) have been linked to changes across multiple trophic levels of marine ecosystems along the eastern and western boundaries. Recent studies of the Northeast Pacific show that other independent climate modes are equally important in explaining changes in coastal ocean upwelling and transport dynamics ? the fundamental processes controlling regional nutrient fluxes and planktonic ecosystem dynamics. This suggests that the interplay of forcing functions associated with multiple large-scale climate modes must be considered to adequately diagnose the dynamics and mechanics underlying variations in regional ecosystems. With this …

Functional Role Of Zebrafish Tlr Proteins, Carol H. Kim

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Project summary.

Influenza virus infections lead to significant illness, mortality, and social disruption worldwide. Herein, the first studies establishing the zebrafish as a model for human influenza infection are presented and it is shown that influenza infection proceeds and can be resolved through similar mechanisms in zebrafish and humans (Gabor, et al.). Our laboratory has previously characterized a fish rhabdovirus infection model in the zebrafish (Phelan, et al.).

Mri: Acquisition Of A Squid Magnetometer For Analysis Of Advanced Materials, Robert W. Meulenberg, Robert J. Lad, David J. Frankel, Michael D. Mason, Samuel T. Hess

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Technical Summary: Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry is a non-destructive technique that reveals detailed information about the electron spin interactions in many types of materials. This project will involve a state-of-the-art SQUID magnetometer and Magnetic Property Measurement System (MPMS), which is a critical tool for characterizing several types of materials currently being investigated by researchers within the Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology (LASST) and other University of Maine (UMaine) laboratories. Specific measurement capabilities include DC and AC magnetic susceptibility, magnetoresistivity, van der Paaw conductivity, and Hall mobility. State-of-the-art MPMS capabilities will be especially valuable to several research programs …

Sustainable Living Teen Volunteers, Catherine Elliot, Kristy Ouellette

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Maine 4-H Youth Development programs have produced nationally-recognized environmental education and healthy lifestyle curricula that are research-based and have reached thousands of participants. Our new statewide initiative in Sustainable Living Education for youth and adults provides an excellent context for the CYFAR Maine Sustainable Communities Project (MSCP), Sustainable Living Teen Volunteers (SLTV). The SLTV program will be conducted at two of our current 4-H Camp and Learning Centers in collaboration with local schools. After completing their training, teens will teach sustainable living concepts and practices to youth in middle schools and 4-H clubs. The SLTVs will learn valuable life skills …

Selection For Enhanced Disease Resistance And Growth Performance In Cross-Bred Eastern Oysters, Crassostrea Virginica, Paul Rawson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Through a replicated field trial we will test the hypothesis that enhanced disease resistance to multiple diseases and improved growth can be realized through a combination of interline crossing and genetic selection on cross-bred lines of oysters.

Together with oyster growers, hatchery operators and extension agents, we will develop guidelines and protocols for the transfer of the best performing lines from our program to commercial hatcheries and the industry. Project results and updates on access to broodstock will be presented at the annual NACE meeting, at annual meetings of the National Shellfisheries Association and via a Fact Sheet at the …

Rapid: Effect Of A Very Low Nao Event On The Abundance Of The Lipid-Rich Planktonic Copepod, Calanus Finmarchicus, In The Gulf Of Maine, Jeffrey Runge

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Test the hypothesis that a distinctly lower abundance of the planktonic copepod, Calanus finmarchicus in the Gulf of Maine follows the occurrence of very negative winter phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In 2010, the station-based winter NAO index was -4.64, even more intense than the negative (-3.78) 1996 NAO winter index. If a two-year lagged relationship between very negative NAO winter indices and Calanus abundance in the Gulf of Maine is valid, cooler water from the Labrador Sea should replace Atlantic Temperate Slope Water in the GoM in 2012, inducing a major climatic ecosystem event on the New …

Rapid: Effect Of A Very Low Nao Event On The Abundance Of The Lipid-Rich Planktonic Copepod, Calanus Finmarchicus, In The Gulf Of Maine, Jeffrey A. Runge

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, is a dominant member of the plankton in the Gulf of Maine, (GoM), despite its location at the southern edge of the species' subarctic range. Wilkinson Basin, one of the three deep basins in the GoM, harbors very high concentrations of the early developmental stages of C. finmarchicus in the summer through winter and serves as a source of C. finmarchicus to GoM coastal ledges and banks. A recent study based on C. finmarchicus habitat characteristics across the North Atlantic predicts that climate-driven change will force the distribution of C. finmarchicus northward out of the GoM …

Fisheries Licensing For The Future Workshop, Paul Anderson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

We have 1) hosted the Licensing Workshop and 2) drafted a white paper report from that meeting as stated in the original proposal. Last year we asked for a no cost extension identifying additional outcomes given the political climate and need for organizing discussions among influential policymakers. We have convened a Working Group of these policymakers twice in the past 6 months and have still determined that while we have moved the licensing conversation to the fore, among these groups, licensing as an issue has not yet matured enough to support the release of a Licensing white paper.

Spatial Dynamics In Fisheries Stock Assessment, Yong Chen

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Most fisheries stock assessments assume that the spatial distribution of fish and/or fishing effort is random (Hilborn and Walters 1992), even though this is rarely the case (Paloheimo and Dickie 1964, Caddy 1975, Hilborn and Walters 1992, Tilzey 1994, Hutchings 1996, Chen et al. 1998, Hart 2001). The target stock is often aggregated and the distribution of fishing effort reflects this spatial pattern, along with other factors such as management restrictions, distance to port, vessel size, and the experience and habits of individual fishers. This often results in high spatial variation in fishing effort and mortality.

Ignoring this spatial variation …

Developing Tools To Evaluate Spawning & Fertilization Dynamics Of The Giant Sea Scallop — Phase Ii: Field Trials In Experimental Populations, Richard A. Wahle, Peter Jumars

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Objective 1 — Sperm advection-diffusion model: Develop a two-dimensional spatial model to predict the concentration o f sperm and effective range of fertilization in a sperm plume at varying distances from a source population of spawning males under scenarios of synchronous and asynchronous spawning.

Objective 2 — Fertilization assays in field populations: Conduct a time series of fertilization assays over experimental populations of scallops to (a) further develop the methodology to assess ambient sperm loads in scallop populations over the course of the spawning season, (b) compare model predictions about spatial patterns of sperm concentration and fertilization generated in Objective …

Production Of Minitubers From Potato Seedlings And Advanced Selections, Benildo G. De Los Reyes

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This cooperation between the University of Maine and USDA-ARS was aimed at providing the infrastructure and manpower support for the propagation and advancement of tetraploid potato breeding materials for the USDFA-ARS-Beltsville Potato Breeding Program (K. Haynes, PI).

Rapid: Natural Laboratories In The Chilean Fjords: Studying Reproduction And Development In Emergent Deep-Sea Corals, Rhian G. Waller

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The northern Patagonian fjords lie on the interface between the high Andes Mountains in the east and the South Pacific Ocean, formed thousands of years ago through erosive glacial activity and tectonic sinking (Borgel, 1970). Around 12,000 years ago the icefields in the Chiloé Interior Sea began to open, leaving behind over 15,000km2 of fjords, channels and gulfs (Clapperton, 1994). The waters within the fjords are influenced by strong tides, large volumes of freshwater runoff, and upwelling of deep-ocean waters as well as steep climatic gradients from north to south (observed in parameters such as temperature, wind intensity and precipitation; …

Rapid: Natural Laboratories In The Chilean Fjords: Studying Reproduction And Development In Emergent Deep-Sea Corals, Rhian G. Waller

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Intellectual Merit

The northern Patagonian fjords lie on the interface between the high Andes Mountains in the east and the South Pacific Ocean, formed thousands of years ago through erosive glacial activity and tectonic sinking. Around 12,000 years ago the icefields in the Chiloé Interior Sea began to open, leaving behind over 15,000km2 of fjords, channels and gulfs. The waters within the fjords are influenced by strong tides, large volumes of freshwater runoff, and upwelling of deep-ocean waters as well as steep climatic gradients from north to south. This dynamic environment has resulted in extremely high biodiversity and endemism, yet …

Understanding Copepod Life-History And Diversity Using A Next-Generation Zooplankton Model, Andrew J. Pershing, Frederic Maps, Nicholas R. Record

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The main goal of our project is to understand the patterns of diversity and biogeography in marine copepods. To achieve this goal, we developed a unique modeling framework to simulate the trade-offs between growth, development, and fecundity in marine copepods.

We developed a new approach to modeling growth and development in metazoans. We applied this approach to marine copepods, and used it to understand relationships between copepod body size and temperature, copepod biodiversity patterns, and copepod biogeography. This project also provided support for experiments to look at how copepod body size impacts the particle size spectrum.

We used our model …

Understanding Copepod Life-History And Diversity Using A Next-Generation Zooplankton Model, Andrew J. Pershing, Frederic Maps, Nicholas Record

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Evolution has shaped the physiology, life history, and behavior of a species to the physical conditions and to the communities of predators and prey within its range. Within a community, the number of species is determined by both physical properties such as temperature and biological properties like the magnitude and timing of primary productivity, and ecological interactions such as predation. Despite well-known correlations between diversity and properties such as temperature, the mechanisms that drive these correlations are not well-described, especially in the oceans. The investigators will conduct a model-based investigation of diversity patterns in marine ecosystems, focusing on calanoid copepods. …

Collaborative Research: Interactive Effects Of Chronic N Deposition, Acidification, And Phosphorus Limitation On Coupled Element Cycling In Streams, Kevin S. Simons, Ivan J. Fernandez, Stephen A. Norton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The overarching goal of this project is to understand how chronic acidification and nitrogen enrichment of watersheds influences coupled biogeochemical cycling in streams. Embedded in the project were two primary research elements: 1) examining nitrogen satuartion and the extent of coupling between nitrogen and phosphorus cycling and 2) resolving the interactions among acidification, phosphorus bioavailability and biotic demand for nitrogen and phosphorus. The research involved a series of stable isotope tracer experiments to document nitrogen uptake under ambient and elevated phosphrous conditions and examination of a suite of key microbial processes (denitrification, decomposition, microbial enzyme activity) at two whole-watershed experiment …

Collaborative Research: Interactive Effects Of Chronic N Deposition, Acidification, And Phosphorus Limitation On Coupled Element Cycling In Streams, Kevin S. Simon, Ivan J. Fernandez, Stephen Norton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Human activity has doubled the amount of nitrogen on the landscape, creating a pollution problem and changing the balance among multiple nutrients that limit biological activity in ecosystems. At the same time, other disturbances, such as acidification, interact with nitrogen enrichment in ways that strongly influence the productivity and health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This project examines the interactions among multiple elements and disturbances (nitrogen, phosphorus, metals, and acidification) along a continuum from the atmosphere through soils to streams. This project takes advantage of two unique experiments in which entire watersheds have been experimentally enriched with nitrogen and acid …

Rcn: Diadromous Species Restoration Research Network (Dsrrn), David Hart, Adria A. Elskus, Peter D. Vaux, Karen A. Wilson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The primary goal of the Diadromous Species Restoration Research Network (DSRRN) was to advance the science of diadromous fish restoration, promote state-of-the-art scientific approaches to multiple-species restoration on a watershed scale, and facilitate interactions among scientists, managers, and stakeholders throughout the North Atlantic region.

This goal was achieved by a series of conferences and workshops over a five-year period between 2008 and 2013. In all, DSRRN organized two multi-day conferences with over 160 participants in attendance and five multiday workshops with an average of 25 participants. The objective of these workshops was to produce new directions for restoration science by …