Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Migration Monitoring Data To Assess Bird Population Status And Behavior In A Changing Environment, Evan M. Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the world, researchers use migration banding stations to document bird migration and study the phenomenon. In this dissertation, I focus on ways of analyzing bird migration banding data and the utility migrating birds as indicators of ecosystem health that make these monitoring efforts more useful to answering ecological questions and managing migratory species. In Chapter 1, we provide background on hierarchical modeling and an overview of our findings. In Chapter 2, we developed and validated new methods to estimate daily changes in migratory population size while controlling for changes in detectability due to environmental conditions. In Chapter 3, this …

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 …

Silence Is The Loudest Sound, Emma Christian

Honors College

Rhinoceros poaching is an act of killing a rhinoceros in order to take its horn, which is then used for human consumption or for cultural traditions. Both the Asian and the African rhinoceros are targets because of the demand from China, Vietnam, Yemen, and other countries around the world. Traditional Chinese Medicine practice is the main demand for rhinoceros horn and this demand in rhinoceros horn has caused an increase in the black market. Conservation of the rhinoceros is decreasing primarily because the price of rhinoceros horn is more than double the average household income in South Africa, thus making …

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: 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; …

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 …

Full Issue, The Editors

The Catch

No abstract provided.

On The Whale-Way, Sarah Harlan-Haughey

The Catch

No abstract provided.

Dirt, Bianca Lech

The Catch

No abstract provided.

Hard Frost, Bianca Lech

The Catch

No abstract provided.

Off To School In The Atlantic (Tremont, Maine), Matthew E. Bernier

The Catch

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Volume 2, Kathleen Ellis

The Catch

No abstract provided.

Conserving Maine's Unique Natural Resource: Monitoring, Outreach, And Education On Our Sand Beaches, Kristen Grant

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Objective I: Provide comprehensive volunteer monitoring of southern Maine beaches to improve state and municipal access to the quality-controlled beach elevation data, on a monthly and pre/post storm basis.

Objective II: Strengthen partnerships among beach profile monitoring stakeholders

Objective III: Expand teaching and learning opportunities for beach stakeholders by facilitating presentations by a range of new perspectives to constituents at the 2013 Maine Beaches Conference.

Objective IV: Publish and disseminate new and expanded data in the Maine Geological Survey’s biannual State o f Maine’s Beaches reports in 2013 and 2015.

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 …

Forest - Atmosphere Interaction At Howland Forest, David Dail

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The overall goal of the proposed work is to understand the various (and interacting) impacts of a changing climate on carbon cycling at the Howland AmeriFlux site, representative of an important component of the North American boreal forest. Our focus is on quantitatively partitioning respiration into aboveground and belowground processes and into autotrophic and heterotrophic processes to better constrain carbon cycle models. Whole-ecosystem flux measurements generally do a poor job of separating photosynthetic uptake from respiration and cannot constrain (or assign) respiration to the different sources within an ecosystem. This partitioning is difficult, but we will take advantage of new …

Woody Biomass Conversion To Jp 8 Fuels: Monthly Funds And Expenditure Report, Hemant P. Pendse

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Two faculty and two staff members are active on this project. GL entries corrections for corrected Capital equipment expenses (re. May report) and corrected indirect cost charges are put in. Correct Total Capital Equipment charges are $82,950 and correct total indirect cost charges are $335,093.47.

Functional Diversity Of Subsurface Deposit Feeders, Peter A. Jumars, Sara M. Lindsay

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The major goals of the project are to gain a comprehensive understanding of polychaete chemosensory behaviors below the sediment-water interface and to understand how burrowing displaces sediment grains.

A method and apparatus for investigating subsurface properties of sediment, soil, snow, food stuff and other soft materials incorporates a probe head, preferably in the form of a coil spring that functions as a screw thread, which moves into the soil, snow, sediment, food stuff or other soft material, isolates a column of the material and applies tension to that column while measuring the applied force with a force sensor.

Habitat Occupancy Of Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus Carolinus) Breeding In Northern New England, Usa, Luke L. Powell, Thomas P. Hodgman, Ian J. Fiske, William E. Glanz

Biology and Ecology Faculty Scholarship

The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), an uncommon songbird often associated with northern coniferous wetlands, has experienced a precipitous population decline since at least the early 20th century. Here, we provide the first analysis of breeding-habitat occupancy at the wetland scale and make recommendations for streamlined monitoring. We modeled occupancy and detectability as a function of site (i.e. habitat-based) and sampling (i.e. visit-specific) variables collected at 546 wetlands in northern New England, USA. Wetland occupancy (mean 6 SE ¼ 0.07 6 0.02 in randomly selected wetlands, and 0.12 6 0.02 in all wetlands surveyed) was best explained by variables …

Fragmentation Of The Kitengela Ecosystem, Kenya, Robert Lilieholm

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Gypsum mines develop into water ponds which attract livestock and wildlife to drink water. The soil is sticky, slippery and unstable; there is loss of wildlife and herders' normally loose livestock in the process as they get trapped while drinking water. The water ponds have fish which has attracted fishermen from other areas...wildlife/livestock and local communities compete for water resources from L. Jipe. The shoats were driven away by elephants. Women who were fetching water literally ran away when the elephants approached. Watering places are good sites for livestock predation too.

Minerva 2014, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes an article on newly expanded and renovated Honors spaces; a spotlight on student research collaboratives; a celebration of renowned Honors faculty members, Steve Cohn and Tina Passman; and a discussion of Honors student travel and volunteerism.