Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Determining The Viability Of Marine Sensor Construction, Roman Sequeira

Honors College

I intend to determine the viability of building a sensor that can be deployed in marine environments. Viability is defined as a summary of economic affordability, practicality of construction and deployment, knowledge required, and effectiveness. In order to get the best results, our sensor must be able to be modified to suit individual circumstances, constructed out of easy to obtain materials, be robust enough to withstand less than lab grade environments, and most importantly function well enough to be worth the effort of building it. I have built a sensor using the cheapest and most widely available options available. It …

Using Cdom Optical Properties To Estimate Its Source, Distribution, And Doc Conentration In Maine Estuaries, Camille Michaud

Honors College

Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) contributes largely to ocean color, and therefore, influences processes and applications that interact with light in the ocean such as remote sensing and biogeochemistry. It is a component part of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and there is a strong relationship in coastal waters between CDOM absorption and DOC concentration. CDOM optical properties also vary with salinity and source. These important aspects of CDOM absorption led us to collect CDOM samples across the salinity gradients of 3 estuaries in Maine: the Penobscot, Damariscotta, and Sheepscot. We sampled stations along the salinity gradient in each estuary from …

Evaluating The Accuracy Of Different Remote Sensing Methods Used To Derive Absorption From Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter In Maine Estuaries, Andrea Rudai

Honors College

Current knowledge of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in Maine estuaries is based on limited field research. By using chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) as a proxy, it is possible to use satellite images to estimate the concentration of DOC in an entire body of water. This study aims to evaluate different methods that calculate absorption by CDOM from ocean color remote sensing using images taken by Landsat 9 of the Sheepscot, Penobscot, and Damariscotta rivers. The study revealed that although there were some similarities in along-estuary trends between the remotely- sensed absorption and absorption measured in situ, the algorithms that …

Maine Lobstermen's Association Whale Update, Amber-Jean Nickel, Maine Lobstermen's Association

Fisheries

The Maine Lobstermen's Association “has been closely following the death of Right Whale 5120 found dead on Martha’s Vineyard on January 28th. The MLA was shocked and dismayed when NOAA Fisheries announced on February 14th that the rope removed from the deceased whale 'is consistent with the rope used in Maine state water trap/pot buoy lines.’”

“Maine lobstermen have made many changes to how we fish to avoid harming a Right whale which makes this news hard to believe. As we move forward, MLA will push back on NOAA’s finding until the industry’s questions about the entanglement and how NOAA …

Wind Effects On Near- And Midfield Mixing In Tidally Pulsed River Plumes, Preston Spicer, Kelly L. Cole, Kimberly Huguenard, Daniel G. Macdonald, Michael M. Whitney

Civil Engineering Faculty Scholarship

River plumes transport and mix land-based tracers into the ocean. In tidally pulsed river plumes, wind effects have long been considered negligible in modulating interfacial mixing in the energetic nearfield region. This research tests the influence of variable, realistic winds on mixing in the interior plume. A numerical model of the Merrimack River plume-shelf system is utilized, with an application of the salinity variance approach employed to identify spatial and temporal variation in advection, straining, and dissipation (mixing) of vertical salinity variance (stratification). Results indicate that moderate wind stresses (∼0.5 Pa) with a northward component countering the downcoast rotation of …

Freshwater Composition And Connectivity Of The Connecticut River Plume During Ambient Flood Tides, Michael M. Whitney, Yan Jia, Kelly L. Cole, Daniel G. Macdonald, Kimberly D. Huguenard

Civil Engineering Faculty Scholarship

The Connecticut River plume interacts with the strong tidal currents of the ambient receiving waters in eastern Long Island Sound. The plume formed during ambient flood tides is studied as an example of tidal river plumes entering into energetic ambient tidal environments in estuaries or continental shelves. Conservative passive freshwater tracers within a high-resolution nested hydrodynamic model are applied to determine how source waters from different parts of the tidal cycle contribute to plume composition and interact with bounding plume fronts. The connection to source waters can be cut off only under low-discharge conditions, when tides reverse surface flow through …

Enso Cycle Driven Spatio-Temporal Variability Of Temperature, Salinity, And Nitrate In In The California Current, Nathan Shunk

Honors College

Nitrate, temperature, and salinity conditions in the coastal upwelling regions of the California Current System vary on decadal timescales due to El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles. This study examines the quarterly variations in these conditions over the period 1979 to 2018 for CalCOFI cross-shelf transect 80, located at Point Conception. The CalCOFI dataset was indexed by NOAA’s Multivariate ENSO Index version two, climatologies were formed over El Nino, La Nina, and neutral quarters and then anomalies were calculated from these climatologies. Variations are most predominantly visible in the upper 200m of the water column and can be seen both …

S3e8: What’S So Cool About Cold-Water Corals?, Ron Lisnet, Rhian Waller

The Maine Question

When people think of coral reefs, they might imagine snorkeling in warm Caribbean waters. But corals also live in the Gulf of Maine and in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, including the Arctic and Antarctic.

Rhian Waller, associate professor of marine sciences and a National Geographic Explorer, dives deep in near-freezing water around the world to learn about what she calls the rainforests of the ocean. She examines how climate change, fishing and oil exploration affect their ecology and reproduction. And she studies the effects that their altered life cycle might have on the marine ecosystem and …

A Biogeographical Assessment Of Arctic Marine Fungi, Bentley E. Simpson

Honors College

Marine fungi play a crucial role in recycling nutrients and channeling energy to higher trophic levels in the world oceans. Despite their critical role, their distributions and community composition, particularly in the Arctic, are largely unknown. This study reveals depth-related trends of abundance, diversity, and community composition of Arctic marine fungi through analysis of data obtained in the Tara Oceans expedition. With samples from surface (0-50 m), deep chlorophyll max (50-200 m), and mesopelagic (200-1000 m) depths, relative abundance, operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness, and diversity were found to increase as a function of depth. Basidiomycota and Ascomycota were found …

Collaborative Research: Historic Perspectives On Climate And Biogeography From Deep-Sea Corals In The Drake Passage, Rhian G. Waller

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Polar oceans are the main sites of deep-water formation and are critical to the exchange of heat and carbon between the deep ocean and the atmosphere. This award "Historic perspectives on climate and biogeography from deep-sea corals in the Drake Passage" will address the following specific research questions: What was the radiocarbon content of the Southern Ocean during the last glacial maximum and during past rapid climate change events? and What are the major controls on the past and present distribution of cold-water corals within the Drake Passage and adjacent continental shelves? Testing these overall questions will allow the researchers …

Collaborative Research: A Nanostructure Sensor For Measuring Dissolved Iron And Copper Concentrations In Coastal And Offshore Seawater, Mark Wells, Carl Tripp

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Iron and Copper serve as key co-constituents for numerous enzymes in a wide range of biological systems, and their elevated or impoverished levels in aqueous systems have dramatic consequences at organismal, ecosystem, and human health scales. Over the last decade these effects have increasingly been recognized to be important in ocean systems. Identifying sites and times where these metals cause negative environmental outcomes is greatly hampered by their comparatively sparse datasets. This problem is a direct consequence of the analytical challenge of obtaining accurate Fe and Cu determinations in saline waters at very low (trace) concentrations, and the limitations of …

Ocean Acidification-Category 1- Impact Of Ocean Acidification On Survival Of Early Life Stages Of Planktonic Copepods In The Genus Calanus In The Northern, Jeffrey A. Runge, John P. Christensen

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

While attention concerning impacts of predicted acidification of the world's oceans has focused on calcifying organisms, non-calcifying plankton may also be vulnerable. In this project, the investigator will evaluate the potential for impacts of ocean acidification on the reproductive success of three species of planktonic copepods in the genus Calanus that are prominent in high latitude oceans. C. finmarchicus dominates the mesozooplankton biomass across much of the coastal and deep North Atlantic Ocean. C. glacialis and the larger C. hyperboreus are among the most abundant planktonic copepods in the Arctic Ocean. Previous research showed that hatching success of C. finmarchicus …

Collaborative Proposal: Cameo: Using Interdecadal Comparisons To Understand Trade-Offs Between Abundance And Condition In Fishery Ecosystems, Andrew J. Pershing, Jeffrey A. Runge

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The investigators will conduct a model-based investigation of the dynamics of a productive pelagic ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine. The middle trophic levels in highly productive marine ecosystems are typically dominated by a few species of pelagic fish, such as sardines and anchovies in upwelling environments or herring and/or capelin in temperate and subpolar regions. These species act as important conduits for energy to higher trophic levels, including larger fish, seabirds, and cetaceans. When abundant, small pelagics can exert significant pressure on their prey, typically large mesozooplankton. Small pelagic fish exhibit complex dynamics and managing these species under an …

The American Lobster Settlement Index: An Early Warning System?, Maine Sea Grant College Program

Maine Sea Grant Publications

The harvest of American lobsters is the Gulf of Maine’s largest, most valuable, and most iconic fishery. The catch has never been higher, but how long will it last? Fishing communities in eastern Maine and southern Nova Scotia are seeing historically high landings, some five times higher than the 1980s. At the same time, the lobster fishery south of Cape Cod has all but collapsed, plagued by shell disease and stressfully warm summers. It has never been more important to monitor this vital fishery. The American Lobster Settlement Index measures the annual pulse of baby lobsters to rocky nurseries some …

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 …

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. …

Flocculation, Optics And Turbulence In The Community Sediment Transport Model System: Application Of Oasis Results, Emmanuel Boss

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The goal of this research is to develop greater understanding of the how the flocculation of fine-grained sediment responds to turbulent stresses and how this packaging of sediment affects optical and acoustical properties in the water column. Achieving these goals will improve the skill of sediment transport models and hence prediction of underwater visibility.

Estimating Particle Size In The Ocean From High-Frequency Variability In In-Situ Optics, Mary Jane Perry

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

During this 3-year NESSF fellowship and seven-month no-cost extension, I published two papers as first author (Briggs et al. 2011; Briggs et al. 2013) and two papers as a co-author (Alkire et al. 2012; Cetinic et al. 2012). I am also co-author on one submitted paper and have worked on five additional papers that are in preparation (two as first author). I have given talks at four international oceanographic conferences: The 2012 and 2014 Ocean Sciences Meetings in Salt Lake City and Honolulu, the 2012 Ocean Optics meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, and the 2013 Liege Colloquium in Liege, Belgium. I …

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.

Cnh: Collaborative Research: Direct And Indirect Coupling Of Fisheries Through Economic, Regulatory, Environmental, And Ecological Linkages, Andrew J. Pershing, Yong Chen, Jeffrey Runge

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The productivity and resilience of fisheries are subject to a multitude of dynamic and interrelated influences that arise from complex coupling of fish populations with the natural and human systems of which they are a part. With few exceptions, fisheries currently are managed independently, ignoring important natural and human linkages among them. The biological productivity, sustainability, and consequently human benefits of complex fishery systems may be substantially increased if these linkages are better understood and if this understanding is applied to management. The American lobster (Homarus americanus), Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) and Northeast multispecies groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of …

Collaborative Research: Centers For Ocean Sciences Education Excellence - National Network Partnerships, Annette V. Decharon

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This proposal will be awarded using funds made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

This award provides funds to support the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Central Coordinating Office (CCO) in a set of projects that will focus on identifying best practices in ocean science education and develop internal and external Network partnerships. Specifically, this award provides funds for the development of an online COSEE Community Center to network teachers, ocean researchers and the public.

The COSEE program, now in its seventh year, has a mission to bridge the gap between …

Fisheries Management In A Changing Climate: Lessons From The 2012 Ocean Heat Wave In The Northwest Atlantic., Katherine E. Mills, Andrew Pershing, Curtis J. Brown, Yong Chen, Fu-Sung Chiang, Daniel S. Holland, Sigrid Lehuta, Janet A. Nye, Jenny C. Sun, Andrew C. Thomas, Richard A. Wahle

Publications

No abstract provided.

Eager: Collaborative Research: Developing Transformation Technologies For Porphyra, Susan H. Brawley

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The genome of the marine red alga Porphyra umbilicalis is being sequenced by the Joint Genome Institute. The sequence information will help scientists address many fundamental questions, because Porphyra spp. belong to an ancient eukaryotic lineage, are important human foods ("nori"), have complex life histories, and---even compared to other intertidal organisms--- possess an unusually stress-tolerant metabolism. Computer-based analyses of the new genomic data will be sufficient to address some research questions, but most studies (e.g., the basis of Porphyra's tolerance to extreme drying or high light) will require experimental approaches based upon bioinformatics analyses. This project will develop the essential …

Collaborative Research: Life Histories Of Species In The Genus Calanus In The North Atlantic And North Pacific Oceans And Responses To Climate Forcing, Jeffrey Runge, Andrew J. Pershing

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Species in the genus Calanus are predominant in the mesozooplankton of the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. Their key role in marine food web interactions has been recognized in GLOBEC programs, both in the U.S. and internationally. Considerable knowledge of life history characteristics, including growth, reproduction, mortality, diapause behavior and demography has been acquired from both laboratory experiments and measurements at sea. This project reviews and synthesizes this knowledge and uses it to develop an Individual Based Life Cycle model for sibling species in two sympatric species pairs, C.marshallae and C. pacificus in the North Pacific Ocean and C. …

Ecology Of Injury In Marine Sedimentary Habitats: Effects Of Repeated Injury On Infaunal Condition And Sediment Bioturbation, Sara M. Lindsay

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The majority of the ocean floor is sedimentary, and marine sediments play a key role in the flux of nutrients and organic matter in the ocean. Via their feeding and other activities, organisms living in marine sediments influence benthic-pelagic coupling by processing and redistributing organic matter supplied from the water column and influencing the supply of nutrients. These activities also influence recruitment and competitive interactions. Thus, factors that impact infaunal activity can secondarily impact sediment biogeochemistry and benthic communities. Non-lethal loss of body tissue is a common event for marine infauna such as polychaetes, and numerous studies have investigated the …

Dissertation Research: Eco-Evolutionary Effects Of An Aquatic Consumer: Linking Phenotypic Diversity To Community And Ecosystem Responses, Kevin S. Simon, Quenton Tuckett, Michael T. Kinnison

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This research addresses the interaction between ecological and evolutionary processes by examining the recent evolution of a common invasive fish species, the white perch, in lakes and the consequences of this evolution for community and ecosystem dynamics. White perch have successfully invaded lakes spanning a productivity gradient, which provides diverse selective pressures that may result in altered fish morphology, physiology and ecological role. Adaptation by these fish may, in turn, feed back to affect lake productivity and community structure through several ecological and chemical pathways. This project tests the hypothesis that this rapid evolutionary divergence within a single species has …

Cmg Collaborative Research: Interactions Of Phytoplankton With Dissipative Vortices, Peter A. Jumars, Lee Karp-Boss

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The aim of this project is to develop coordinated laboratory experiments and computational models to address a fundamental question in oceanography concerning magnitudes and mechanisms of turbulence effects on phytoplankton and other particles at the spatial scale of individual organisms. The importance of external energy in the form of turbulence in determining relative success of different kinds of phytoplankton dates to the seminal analysis of Munk and Riley (1952) and Margalef (1978). Margalef's "mandala" asserts that high nutrient concentrations and turbulence intensities favor dominance by diatoms, whereas low values favor non-red-tide dinoflagellates. Subsequent work has revealed a wide spectrum of …