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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

S5e11: Why Might Maine Lose Two Species Of Songbirds?, Ron Lisnet, Katherine Ruskin, Brian Olsen Dec 2021

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 …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 12, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Dec 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 12, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


S5e8: How Are Ticks Threatening Maine’S Moose?, Ron Lisnet, Pauline L. Kamath Nov 2021

S5e8: How Are Ticks Threatening Maine’S Moose?, Ron Lisnet, Pauline L. Kamath

The Maine Question

The moose has become so synonymous with Maine that it serves as the state animal. Residents and tourists alike scout the forests and mountains to catch at least a glimpse of this majestic mammal, and their odds aren’t too slim. Maine has the highest wild moose population in the lower 48 states, with 60,000–80,000 roaming the woods. Their population is considered stable, but it faces a tiny, yet lethal, threat: winter ticks.

Moose populations along the southern edge of their range in the U.S. have been declining due to winter ticks, or moose ticks, and other parasites. Some moose carry …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 11, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Nov 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 11, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Maine Scallop Research Collaborative Newsletter, October 15, 2021, Aquaculture Research Institute Oct 2021

Maine Scallop Research Collaborative Newsletter, October 15, 2021, Aquaculture Research Institute

General University of Maine Publications

Evaluating Biological Responses of Scallops to Environmental Variability. Phoebe Jekielek and Tom Kiffney, both PhD students at the University of Maine, will talk about their monitoring projects in cultured and wild populations of sea scallops along the coast of Maine. They will share data from their projects monitoring spawning and growth rates, discuss environmental variability and site selection tools, and share directions for their future PhD work.


Modulation Of Ecosystem Services By Animal Personalities, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr, Sara R. Boone, Allison M. Brehm, Alessio Mortelliti Oct 2021

Modulation Of Ecosystem Services By Animal Personalities, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr, Sara R. Boone, Allison M. Brehm, Alessio Mortelliti

Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology Faculty Scholarship

Conservationists rarely consider the roles individuals, with their own unique behavior, physiology, and genome, play in shaping ecosystem processes and consequently ecosystem services, but this is changing. An ongoing surge in research on animal personalities (that is, behavioral differences among individuals that are consistent over time and across contexts) is exposing the ecological roles of individuals to scientific scrutiny. Here, we present four broad examples of ecosystem services that are likely to be shaped by personalities: (1) pollination and seed dispersal, (2) regulation of pest species, (3) ecotourism, and (4) maintenance of soil quality. Although researchers have suggested diverse links …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 10, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Oct 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 10, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 9, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Sep 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 9, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 8, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Aug 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 8, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 7, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Jul 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 7, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 6, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Jun 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 6, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Maine-Edna: Sustaining Coastal Ecosystems In Maine And Beyond, Maine Epscor May 2021

Maine-Edna: Sustaining Coastal Ecosystems In Maine And Beyond, Maine Epscor

General University of Maine Publications

Maine Environmental DNA (Maine-eDNA) is a statewide, multi-institutional initiative establishing Maine as a natural leader in environmental monitoring, ecological understanding and sustainability of coastal ecosystems through research, education, and outreach.


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 5, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance May 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 5, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Human Facial Recognition In Holstein Heifers, Kendra Huth May 2021

Human Facial Recognition In Holstein Heifers, Kendra Huth

Honors College

Cattle see things differently than humans, but it is known that cattle can identify humans based on past encounters. For this study,I hypothesized that Holstein heifers are capable of differentiating between humans solely based on facial characteristics. Six Holstein heifers from J.F. Witter Teaching and Research Farm were trained and tested for 4 weeks using pictures of objects and faces, which the cattle have never seen. A fifth week of testing took place 6 weeks later to examine their long-term memory. Each heifer participated in 10 trials per day using a Y-maze configuration, with 2 photo options to choose from. …


Action Plan In Response To Future Pandemics, Amber Ferris May 2021

Action Plan In Response To Future Pandemics, Amber Ferris

Honors College

Zoonotic pandemics are rare and finding cures can be difficult, especially if the disease is new to scientists. Early containment can be challenging if protocols are not in place to help limit the spread. The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic hit suddenly, and the number of cases grew dramatically over a short period of time. The escalation of the disease outpaced the ability of many businesses and institutions to implement protocols to keep their practice safe while remaining open. This project researched the effect COVID-19 had on small animal veterinary practices. In order to answer the research question, “How has COVID-19 affected …


Control Of A Ruminant Pathogen, Parelaphostrongylus Tenuis, Using Poultry: Effects Of Gastropod Diets On Ducks, Tuuli Overturf May 2021

Control Of A Ruminant Pathogen, Parelaphostrongylus Tenuis, Using Poultry: Effects Of Gastropod Diets On Ducks, Tuuli Overturf

Honors College

Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, referred to as “brainworm,” is a parasite that originates in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus, WTD) and has the ability to spread and cause harm to livestock, particularly small ruminants. Larvae are shed in the feces of WTD and are picked up by gastropods (e.g.snails and slugs), where they mature to their infective stage. When livestock accidentally ingest the snails, the worms migrate through their spinal cord and around the brain, causing damage that can be fatal. Preventing brainworm infection is important to livestock owners, and a proposed method of mitigating risk is gastropod control. Snail …


Identifying Risk Factors Of Anaplasma Infection In Plains Zebra Of Etosha National Park, Namibia, Madison Stahle May 2021

Identifying Risk Factors Of Anaplasma Infection In Plains Zebra Of Etosha National Park, Namibia, Madison Stahle

Honors College

Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne illness that is caused by bacteria from the genus Anaplasma which infect the blood cells of their hosts. Anaplasmosis can affect the health and life expectancy of zebra, however, little is known about what makes drives the variability in infection within this species. The purpose of this study is to (1) determine the prevalence, and (2) identify risk factors for Anaplasma infections in plains zebra (Equus quagga) from the Etosha National Park, Namibia, including whether Anaplasma infections correlate with other parasite infections (ectoparasites and gastrointestinal parasites).Other possible risk factors for Anaplasma infection that are …


Maine Scallop Research Collaborative Newsletter, March 29, 2021, Aquaculture Research Institute Mar 2021

Maine Scallop Research Collaborative Newsletter, March 29, 2021, Aquaculture Research Institute

General University of Maine Publications

Our kickoff webinar will feature Amber Lisi from the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Amber Lisi is the lead scallop biologist for the Maine Department of Marine Resources and is responsible for the coordination, implementation, and participation in Maine’s sea scallop resource surveys, analysis, and assessment program. She participates in research and management for sea scallops at the local, state and federal levels, and serves as a member of the New England Fisheries Management Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT). She will be joining us for a webinar on March 29th to review results from recent and past surveys, discuss …


Maine Scallop Research Collaborative Newsletter, March 25, 2021, Aquaculture Research Institute Mar 2021

Maine Scallop Research Collaborative Newsletter, March 25, 2021, Aquaculture Research Institute

General University of Maine Publications

Welcome to the first Scallop Research Collaborative (SRC) Newsletter. At the kick off meeting on January 22,you identified e-news as your preferred method of communication. We will use this format to update you on the SRC’s webinar series, upcoming field trips, collaborative research meetings as well as upcoming scallop events at other organizations around the state. We will also update the SRC web page with relevant information andnews. Please feel free to submit any information you would like to share and we look forward to more events and opportunities as the year progresses.


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 3 & 4, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Mar 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 3 & 4, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 2, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Feb 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 2, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …


Landings, Vol. 29, No. 1, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance Jan 2021

Landings, Vol. 29, No. 1, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance

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.

Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of …