Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Landings, Vol. 31, No. 12, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Rebecca Nuzzi, Amber-Jean Nickel

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

S5e11: Why Might Maine Lose Two Species Of Songbirds?, Ron Lisnet, Katherine Ruskin, Brian Olsen

The Maine Question

Maine may lose two tidal marsh songbird species in the next few decades. Saltmarsh sparrows face extinction, while Acadian Nelson’s sparrows are threatened with extirpation — localized eradication with the possibility of survival elsewhere. Their populations along the Eastern Seaboard have been declining as sea level rise destroys their habitats and, according to a new University of Maine-led study, mercury exposure inhibits their reproduction.

In the final episode of Season 5 of “The Maine Question,” Kate Ruskin, a lecturer in ecology and environmental science at UMaine who spearheaded the recent mercury exposure study, and Brian Olsen, who is now an …

Long-Term Gene–Culture Coevolution And The Human Evolutionary Transition, Timothy M. Waring, Zachary T. Wood

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

It has been suggested that the human species may be undergoing an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI). But there is disagreement about how to apply the ETI framework to our species, and whether culture is implicated as either cause or consequence. Long-term gene–culture coevolution (GCC) is also poorly understood. Some have argued that culture steers human evolution, while others proposed that genes hold culture on a leash. We review the literature and evidence on long-term GCC in humans and find a set of common themes. First, culture appears to hold greater adaptive potential than genetic inheritance and is probably driving …

Assessing Lipid Content In Migrating Alewife, Anthony Zenga

Honors College

Alewife are a commercially, economically, and ecologically important fish, that expend large amounts of energy during their long migrations to spawning habitat. This energy demand can influence an individual’s chances of surviving and reproducing successfully. To understand how energy use may affect fitness, we captured alewife from the Souadabscook Stream over the course of their spawning migration. Fifty fish were sampled each week from May 12th to June 10th 2019. The lipid content of each individual was measured by using i) a Distell Fatmeter and ii) gravimetric analysis by measuring muscle moisture as an indirect method to assess lipid content. …

A Qualitative Study Of The Perceived Risks Of The Impacts Of Moose-Winter Tick Interactions On Human Health, Maine Economy, And Maine Culture, Asha Dimatteo-Lepape

Honors College

In order to answer the question of how people perceive the interactions between winter ticks and moose, and the impacts that these interactions may have on culture, economy, and recreational practices in Maine, interviews were conducted with participants from four stakeholder groups: hunters, outfitters, Wabanaki citizens, and wildlife managers. By using a case study methodology, I was able to explore moose health risk perceptions as described by participants from the four stakeholder groups, and the likely impacts on recreation behavior, livelihoods and economic viability, cultural maintenance, and wildlife management. In this study, multiple data generation techniques (i.e., semi-structured interviews, archival …

Emergent Sustainability In Open Property Regimes, Mark Moritz, Roy Behnke, Christine M. Beitl, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Rafael Chiaravalloti, Julia Clark, Stefani Crabtree, Sean S. Downy, Ian M. Hamilton, Sui Chian Phang, Paul Scholte, Jim Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Current theoretical models of the commons assert that common-pool resources can only be managed sustainably with clearly defined boundaries around both communities and the resources that they use. In these theoretical models, open access inevitably leads to a tragedy of the commons. However, in many open-access systems, use of common-pool resources seems to be sustainable over the long term (i.e., current resource use does not threaten use of common-pool resources for future generations). Here, we outline the conditions that support sustainable resource use in open property regimes. We use the conceptual framework of complex adaptive systems to explain how processes …

Penobscot River Restoration, Catherine Schmitt

Maine Sea Grant Publications

BETWEEN THE HEAD of tide above Bangor to where it widens into the bay at Searsport, the Penobscot River shifts from a flowing freshwater waterway banked by cedar and pine to a brackish, wave-lapped marsh with a rocky shoreline. In this estuary, salt concentrations fluctuate as the winds and tides push sea water and sediments back and forth. The estuary and the river that feeds it have taken on a new character recently, and have become an international example of watershed restoration. Despite two centuries of intensive timber harvesting and pulp and paper manufacturing, and the construction of hundreds of …

Why Rhetoric Matters For Ecology, Caroline Druschke, Bridie Mcgreavy

Publications

Increasingly, scientists and funding agencies such as the US National Science Foundation are recognizing the need for better science communication and more effective broader impacts activities. Compelled to make research more relevant to public stakeholders and policy makers, researchers look for ways to gain the necessary skillset to move their science from the field and laboratory into public forums. We suggest that the ancient discipline of rhetoric provides a useful – and underutilized – path forward. Building from the fundamental connections between ecology and rhetoric and drawing from practical examples at the intersection of these two fields, we demonstrate how …

Connecting Rivers For Healthy Ocean Fisheries, Catherine Schmitt

Maine Sea Grant Publications

Across Maine, communities and land owners are reconnecting rivers and streams by improving road crossings, fixing broken culverts, and removing dams and other barriers. There are many reasons for doing this work, including preventing costly repairs associated with flooding and washouts, enhancing water quality, increasing wildlife habitat, and restoring fish populations. Connecting Rivers explores some of the ways that streams connect inland lakes and forests and the sea. This first fact sheet in the series focuses on connections between populations of migratory river fish (alewives and blueback herring) and groundfish (e.g., cod).

The Complementary Niches Of Anthropocentric And Biocentric Conservationists, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr., Kent H. Redford, David Lindenmayer

Publications

A divergence of values has become apparent in recent debates between conservationists who focus on ecosystem services that can improve human well-being and those who focus on avoiding the extinction of species. These divergent points of view fall along a continuum from anthropocentric to biocentric values, but most conservationists are relatively closer to each other than to the ends of the spectrum. We have some concerns with both positions but emphasize that conservation for both people and all other species will be most effective if conservationists focus on articulating the values they all share, being respectful of divergent values, and …

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project At Dickey, Maine : Final Environmental Statement, Volume 1-4, U. S. Army Engineer Division, New England

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The proposed Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project in northern Maine is a multipurpose installation on the St.John River. The combination hydroelectric power and flood control project is located in Aroostook County, Maine, near the Canadian border. The two proposed earth fill dams located at Dickey are 10,200 feet in length with a maximum height of 335 feet. They would impound 7.7 million acre feet of water at a maximum pool elevation 910 feet mean sea level. A second earth filled dam located 11 miles downstream at Lincoln School would serve as a regulatory dam. It would be 2100 feet in lenqth, …

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Environmental Impact Statement: Appendix G: Recreation Resources (Revised June 1978), U.S. Army, Corps Of Engineers, New England Division, Northern Maine Regional Planning Commission, Land Use Consultants, Inc.

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The purpose of this report is to evaluate and describe the existing recreational use and resources of the project area and the encompassing study area and to project the future use of those resources both with and without the Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project. The primary impact area of the proposed project (project area) includes the St. John River watershed upstream of the proposed damsites to the confluence of Nine-mile Brook. The area is bounded by the watershed divide with the Allagash River on the east and the Canadian Border on the west. Major tributaries of the St. John affected by …

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies Environmental Impact Statement: Appendix A, United States Department Of Energy

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Energy have conducted system planning, location, and environmental studies for the trans-mission facilities required for the Dickey-Lincoln School Hydroelectric Project. These studies of many alternate routes have resulted in iden-tification of a proposed transmission line route, and an environmental impact statement, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. This report, documenting an early phase of the overall studies, was first published by the Department of the Interior in February 1977. It is being republished as Appendix A to the DOE Environmental Impact Statement for the project.

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies Environmental Impact Statement: Appendix H: Socio-Economic Impact Study, Edward C. Jordan Co., Inc., United States Department Of Energy

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The principal objective of this study is to identify the major types and intensity of social and economic impacts anticipated with the proposed pre-construction, construction, operation and maintenance of the Dickey-Lincoln transmission line. In order to address the types of anticipated impacts it was necessary to first develop a socio-economic profile of the affected area.

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies Environmental Impact Statement: Appendix F: Geotechnical Impact Study, Jordan Gorrill Associates, Edward C. Jordan Co., Inc., United States Department Of Energy

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Energy have conducted system planning, location, and environmental studies for the trans-mission facilities required for the Dickey-Lincoln School Hydroelectric project. These studies of many alternate routes have resulted in iden-tification of a proposed transmission line route and an environmental impact statement, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. This report, one of several prepared under contract to the DOE by various consultants, is published as an appendix to that statement. Appendix F, Geotechnical Impact Study (two volumes, the second being a map volume), documents a study performed by E. C. …

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies Environmental Impact Statement: Appendix G: Land Use Impact Study, Jordan Gorrill Associates, Edward C. Jordan Co., Inc., United States Department Of Energy

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

This report is in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. It is a study of the existing and proposed land use impacts which would likely occur as a result of construction of the Dickey-Lincoln Transmission Line in con-junction with the Dickey-Lincoln Hydroelectric Project at Lincoln School in Northern Maine. This report is organized and follows basically a topical summary as outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act.

Terrestrial Ecology Of The Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project, Corps Of Engineers, New England Division, Environmental Research & Technology, Inc

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

This introduction of the St. John River watershed is situated in a transitional zone between the Boreal Forest Formation and the Eastern Deciduous Forest Formation. Second-growth forests representative of these two ecosystems cover extensive areas of the project site. The boreal forest forms a broad transcontinental belt in northern North America and Eurasia, with southern montane extensions. This northern forest is characterized by evergreen, coniferous trees, predominately spruce-fir The eastern deciduous forest, composed of broad-leaved hardwoods, extends throughout the eastern United States except Florida (Dasmann, 1968; Oosting, 1956).

Scope Of Work, Environmental Impact Statement For The Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project, New England Division, United States Army Engineer Division, United States Army Corps Of Engineers

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

Revised draft combines data previously published in two separate impact statements prepared by the corps relating to the dams, reservoirs and power plants and by the U. S. Department of Energy for transmission facilities to link the St. John River development to the New England power grid. The latter agency is responsible for the marketing and distribution of power generated at federally-financed installations.

Logbook, U.S.S. Gannet, 1912-1913, George W. Greenleaf, United States Bureau Of Fisheries

History of Maine Fisheries

Logbook of the U.S.S. Gannet, a research steam vessel commanded by Captain George W. Greenleaf for the United States Bureau of Fisheries hatchery located on McKown Point in Boothbay Harbor (Me.). The vessel was used by the hatchery in its efforts to preserve and increase fish stocks, including cod, haddock, polluck, flounder and lobsters. Records daily activities along the coast, including the number of seeders and eggs harvested and/or released, water temperatures, weather, and general maintenance of the vessel.