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Old Town Science Students Part of UMaine Research on Mercury Contamination

Old Town High School senior Andrew Brothers says the dragonfly larvae and zooplankton in teacher Ed Lindsey’s science lab are even more fun than the ant farm he had as a kid.

But the project Brothers is working on is far from child’s play.

Brothers, along with senior Samantha Emerson, and sophomores Christine Pollard and Jaime Lemery, are collaborating with University of Maine researcher Sarah Nelson, who is using dragonfly larvae as bio-sentinels for mercury in wetlands, stream watersheds and lakes across the Northeast.

In their classroom laboratory, the students have set up mesocosms — mini-ecosystems in the form of tanks of circulated stream water from Baker Brook in Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Milford, Maine — where 300 dragonfly eggs gathered from adult dragonflies they captured have hatched.

Now that the eggs have hatched and the dragonfly larvae are eating, growing and molting, the students are collecting data to find out how — and at what rate — mercury accumulates as the dragonfly larvae grow.

They’re periodically measuring mercury in the water, zooplankton, larvae and exoskeletons the young dragonflies shed. UMaine’s Sawyer Environmental Chemistry Lab will analyze the samples with a direct mercury analyzer. The goal is to shed light on the patterns of mercury accumulation as dragonflies grow from egg to adult, informing research on the use of dragonflies as local indicators of how mercury moves up food chains.

In humans, low-grade chronic mercury exposure can impair cognitive functions and diminish motor skills, says Nelson. People are predominantly exposed to mercury, a heavy, toxic metal, from eating contaminated fish.

This is an independent study project for the high students, who are pioneers of sorts for building the mini-ecosystems and raising dragonflies. Nelson says one of the only reference materials they could locate about the topic was a book written in the 1920s.

The dragonfly larvae are fed zooplankton that the students are growing in tanks of Baker Brook water. The zooplankton is raised on neon green phytoplankton, grown in an apparatus Brothers built.

“They’re cool little creatures,” Brothers says of the zooplankton, which are barely visible to the naked eye. “They corral around like dogs to a food bowl when they’re being fed.”

The dragonfly larvae are also interesting. Lemery calls them “tenacious and mobile little soldiers” that sometimes escape from their containers. Each larva is housed in a separate container in the water tanks. Nelson says they would devour each other if they were kept together. It typically takes between one and five years for a dragonfly egg to become an adult, she says.

The science students are mentored by Lindsey, one of 18 educators nationwide who received the 2012 Presidential Innovation Award. Lindsey, who teaches earth science and chemistry at Old Town High School, purchased equipment, including microscopes, with the award money he received. He described the research project as authentic and a public service.

Nelson is a scientist with UMaine’s Sen. George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research and School of Forest Resources. Her research interests are watershed geochemistry, atmospheric deposition and mercury.

Last May, Old Town students joined more than 200 of their peers and science teachers from Bangor, John Bapst, Mount View and Sumner Memorial high schools in presenting findings from their research on mercury in local watersheds as part of Acadia Learning. A partnership among the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) Institute at Acadia National Park, UMaine’s Mitchell Center, and Maine Sea Grant, Acadia Learning works to train and support teachers for research designed to engage high school students in sample collection and data analysis for mercury. UMaine’s Sawyer Environmental Chemistry Research Laboratory analyzes the samples.

Students use the data to investigate their own research questions about how mercury accumulates in food chains in local streams. The data have become part of a regional database coordinated by Nelson, adding to a regional picture of mercury in fresh waters across the Northeast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Maine Department of Education, private donors and the Davis Foundation fund Acadia Learning.

The school-based program is the springboard for a newly launched citizen scientist project by the Nelson and the National Park Service to study mercury in dragonfly larvae. The nymphs collected in national parks nationwide are being sent to UMaine and Dartmouth College laboratories for analysis. According to the National Park Service website on the citizen scientist project, the goal is to better understand human-caused mercury contamination in national park environments and “characterizing the risk and potential transfer of mercury around food webs.”

UMaine Extension Launching Online Beginning Farmer Resource Network

This month, University of Maine Cooperative Extension is introducing a new Beginning Farmer Resource Network and a question-and-answer website.

Developed by a group of agricultural service providers, the Beginning Farmer Resource Network (BFRN) is a collaborative online effort to address concerns among beginning farmers about available services and provide answers to commonly asked questions. The website, which will be updated as feedback is received, will be accessible Jan. 8 through the UMaine Extension website. The free program will expand online informational resources now available on the UMaine Extension website.

UMaine Extension will launch the initiative with introductory sessions during the Jan. 8–10 Maine Agricultural Trade Show in Augusta. BFRN members will be available to answer questions, guide users on website content and receive feedback.

Initial topics will range from taxes, financing and U.S. Department of Agriculture programs to finding land or local large animal veterinarians, and how to balance farm and family life. No real one-stop-shop is available for new farmers in need of assistance with the huge variety of issues they face in the first few years, says coordinator Tori Jackson, UMaine Extension professor of agriculture and natural resources in the Androscoggin-Sagadahoc counties office. BFRN is hoping to help make it a little easier, she says.

In addition in February, UMaine Extension also is offering a four-week course, “So You Want to Farm in Maine?” on Tuesdays, Feb. 5–26, 6:30–9 p.m., at the University of Maine Learning Center, 75 Clearwater Drive, Suite 104, Falmouth. A $50 per-farm fee includes course materials. Topics of discussion include selecting and evaluating farm enterprises, keeping production and financial records with QuickBooks, and doing market research for farm products and services. Classes will include panel discussions about available resources for farmers. Attendance is limited to 25 participants and preregistration is required. For more information, to register or to request disability accommodations, contact Andrea Herr, 207.781.6099 or andrea.herr@maine.edu. Additional information is available on the UMaine Extension website.

Contact: Tori Jackson, 207.353.5550, or tori.jackson@maine.edu

The Coastal and Marine Mercury Ecosystem Research Collaborative (C-MERC), led by the Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program at Dartmouth College with support from the Maine Sea Grant College Program at the University of Maine, has released a report, “Sources to Seafood: Mercury Pollution in the Marine Environment,” focusing on the pathways and consequences of mercury pollution across marine systems. “Sources to Seafood” reflects findings from 11 scientific papers representing the work of nearly 70 mercury and marine scientists, including some at the University of Maine, studying ocean regions from the Arctic Ocean and San Francisco Bay to the Gulf of Maine. Maine Sea Grant staff designed and edited “Sources to Seafood,” which was presented as part of a C-MERC policy briefing in Washington, D.C., Dec. 4–6, that included representatives from the EPA, NOAA and the State Department. The report and more information about C-MERC are available online.

Feb. 22 is the deadline for preliminary proposals for Maine Sea Grant College Program research projects to be funded from February 2014 through January 2016. Through biennial request for proposals, Maine Sea Grant strives to sponsor a diverse research portfolio that links the scientific capacity of Maine with the needs of coastal stakeholders. More information is available online.

Contact: Catherine Schmitt, 207.581.1434

Channel 5 (WABI) covered the recent talk at the University of Maine Hudson Museum by Angela Thompson, an East Carolina University professor of Latin American history, about the ancient Mayan calendar and her belief that the world would survive a doomsday scenario predicted by some to occur when the calendar ended Dec. 21.

Channel 5 (WABI) interviewed University of Maine senior Samantha Laverdiere, an Auburn native majoring in psychology with a biology minor, about a fundraising project she is undertaking to make and sell candles, ribbons and bracelets to benefit children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where a gunman recently killed 20 students and six adults.

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Bangor Daily News and the Washington Post were among the news organizations reporting the death of former University of Maine President Lloyd Elliot at age 94. He was president of UMaine from 1958–65 and of George Washington University from 1965–88. The article included comments from UMaine President Paul Ferguson and UMaine professors emeriti John Battick and Richard Hill.

The Bangor Daily News has posted an announcement about a presentation on United States and Pakistan relations at 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 7 at the University of Maine Buchanan Alumni House featuring Husain Haqqani, a Pakistani scholar and public figure who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008–11.

Researchers at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Keck Laser Ice Facility laboratory have installed and calibrated a new, state-of-the-art Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy instrument that will change the way isotopes in glacial ice are measured for reconstructing and understanding ancient climate change. Researchers Andrei Kurbatov, a Climate Change Institute (CCI) assistant research professor, CCI Director Paul Mayewski and Douglas Introne, CCI stable isotope technician, received funding from the National Science Foundation for the instrument. It will enable the characterization of past abrupt climate change events at extremely high resolution and in unprecedented detail in order to better understand the driving forces of climate change.

University of Maine faculty and staff have an opportunity to purchase discounted men’s ice hockey tickets for the three January home games at $10 each. The Black Bears, fresh from winning the 2012 Florida College Hockey Classic Tournament, are playing Mercyhurst at 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 5, and Merrimack at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Jan. 18–Jan. 19 at the Alfond Arena. For tickets, call the Department of Athletics ticket office at 207.581.2327.

A free four-week program exploring stress-reduction strategies is being offered to UMaine faculty and staff from 8:30–10 a.m. or 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. each Tuesday in February in the Multipurpose Room of the Memorial Union. Leslie Forstadt, University of Maine Cooperative Extension faculty member and child and family development specialist, will lead the classes. Attendance is limited to 10 people and advance registration is required. For more information, to register or to request disability accommodations, contact Angela Martin, angela.martin@maine.edu or 207.581.3739. The program, Mindful University, is funded in part by the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center with support from the National Science Foundation.

Lloyd Elliott, University of Maine President from 1958–65, died Jan. 1 at the age of 94.

After leaving UMaine, Elliott served as president of George Washington University from 1965 until his retirement in 1988. He then became the president of the National Geographic Education Foundation.

“Lloyd Elliott was a nationally recognized educational leader,” says University of Maine President Paul W. Ferguson. “At UMaine, he championed educational access, the humanities and science, improved the campus infrastructure, and understood the importance of UMaine research to help the state. Lloyd Elliott continued the development of UMaine on a firm path to becoming the flagship university of Maine that it is today. We have deep gratitude for his service, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Elliott came to UMaine from Cornell University, where he had served as executive assistant to the president. During his University of Maine administration, Elliott was known for his commitment to expanding student capacity on campus and obtaining enhanced funding from the Maine legislature for faculty and staff.

The transformation of the campus landscape during his presidency included construction of six new classroom buildings, six dormitories, two dining halls and Hauck Auditorium. Among other benchmarks: the deployment of closed-circuit television to expand statewide access to classes and the acquisition of Darling Marine Center.

Elliott was instrumental in bringing President John F. Kennedy to the university in October 1963 — 33 days before his assassination in Dallas — to receive an honorary degree.

UMaine historian David C. Smith in his book, The First Century: A History of the University of Maine, 1865–1965, characterized Elliott as “a whirlwind in his years at Orono. The campus was literally no longer recognizable to one who has been there in the thirties.” That much-changed campus landscape was celebrated in UMaine’s centennial year, 1965.

Elliott received an honorary degree from UMaine in 1969.

Elliott was a West Virginia native who earned his undergraduate degree from Glendale State College, a master’s from the University of West Virginia and a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Colorado.

Click here to view the flyer A workshop for Faculty, Instructors, and Graduate Students interested in teaching The ABCs of Students with Disabilities: Accommodations, Behaviors, and Compliance Ann Smith and Sara Henry from Disability Support Services will present information through an interactive format using case scenarios to help you • understand your role and your [...]

How waging peace can save humanity, our planet and our future  

Date: October 23 4:00 to 6:00 PM Date: October 24 2:00 to 4:00 PM Location: Graduate School, 57 Stodder Hall Workshop will focus on: Common mistakes with format, consistency, pagination, and “special” circumstances To register: email the “Thesis Workshop” in FirstClass or thesis.workshop@umit.maine.edu or call 207-581-3217

HED 598 (Section 4): College Men and Masculinities Saturdays – September 8, 15, 22, 29, and October 6 1 credit unit Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students! This course will explore the development of men and the concept of masculinities as it relates to the context of higher education. Within this course, we will [...]

The Office of Fraternity, Sorority and Leadership Development, a member of the Division of Student Affairs, it seeking a Graduate Assistant for the current academic year. This position will work out of the WADE Student Leadership Center and will work primarily with our non-Greek student organizations. This position will work to develop and coordinate resources [...]

Skylar Bayer, a Doctor of Philosophy student in Marine Biology, is the January 2013 Graduate Student of the Month.

Graduate School: Where are you from originally?

Bayer: I am from the Greater Boston Area and Cape Cod.

Graduate School: What undergraduate institution(s) did you previously attend?

Bayer: I did my Master of Science in Biological Oceanography in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT-WHOI) Joint Program and I received my Bachelors of Science in Marine Biology from Brown University.

Graduate School: Why did you choose to attend UMaine?

Bayer: I chose the University of Maine because of the reputation of the School of Marine Sciences, the Darling Marine Center and of course my advisor, Rick Wahle. I wanted to learn how to be an ecologist that also works with local fisheries. 

Graduate School: What degree program are you pursuing?

Bayer: Doctor of Philosophy (expected 2016) in Marine Biology in the School of Marine Sciences. My dissertation work focuses on reproductive and fertilization dynamics of Placopecten magellanicus – giant sea scallops. 

Graduate School: What are your plans after graduation?

Bayer: Given that this is a few years away, I’m not sure at this point. I’d like to continue working in the field of ecology, but also help shape future ecological policy. 

Graduate School: What do you consider your most important accomplishment here so far?

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