Description: Rockweed is a brown algae found on rocky shores. The most common types of rockweed are within the genus Ascophyllum spp. and Fucus spp. (the latter is shown to the left). They grow slowly and can live from 3 to 15 years before breakage. Rockweeds have fronds that bear air bladders. These 'airbags' help the algae to stand up straight under water. Rockweed lacks true roots, stems, and leaves, and because they lack a vascular system, absorb dissolved nutrients directly through the blades. Rockweed attaches to rocks with a disc-like “holdfast”, and regenerate fronds from remaining holdfasts after a natural disturbance that removes upright fronds. [show more]
Description: Great Duck Island is a 237-acre island 15 km south of Mount Desert Island, Maine. It served as a manned Coast Guard lighthouse post from 1890 until 1986 when it was automated. Sheep grazed the island from the late 19th century until 1951, dramatically impacting the landscape and ecology of the island. In 1985, the Nature Conservancy and the State of Maine gained control of most of the island, collaborating with the College of the Atlantic Eno Research Station to monitor the ecology of the land. [show more]
Description: Developing our arboretum creates more records for future students to refer to, to analyze our campus inventory over time. Our current arboretum contains around 150 different species of woody specimens
Description: Mount Desert Island, located off the east coast of Maine, is completely surrounded by intertidal environments. Throughout the 1900s, data was collected and recorded in notebooks regarding intertidal life by numerous researchers, followed by entry into a spreadsheet by Michael Hays, a citizen scientist who worked with the MDIBL (Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory). In present day, these data can be put into a map thanks to ArcGIS Pro. These data includes large amounts of information regarding marine life around the coastal environments of MDI, such as species common and Latin names, locations observed (where on the island along with Lat. and Long.), observation year, along with some brief notes about each observation. [show more]
Description: Roads often intersect the habitat between forests and wetlands, leaving migrating amphibians with no choice but to cross the road. Unfortunately, many amphibians are killed by vehicles when they migrate across roads. These animals' small size and slow movements make them difficult to see from a car.
Description: The goal of this project was to identify birding hotspots on Mount Desert Island. To do this, I used data from eBird to determine which birds are most common in each sector. The sectors are areas used by birders during the annual Christmas Bird Count . Birding hotspots are areas that birders go to frequently
Description: Maine has over 6,000 lakes and ponds. These waterbodies are home to a wide range of wildlife and plant species. Maintaining high water quality in Maine’s lakes and ponds is essential to protect the health of these habitats and the species that use them.
Description: Herring gulls are found around the world, not only by the sea, despite often being called "seagulls". There is debate over the herring gull's taxonomic status. American ornithologists lump herring gulls in North America and Europe, while European ornithologists split them. They are often described as scavengers, though there is evidence that individual herring gulls specialize on particular food sources (intertidal, aquaculture, ocean, anthropogenic, freshwater). [show more]
Description: Acoustic Receivers are monitoring devices that listen for specific sound wavelengths. When these soundwaves are detected a data point is stored and categorized under a unique ID.
Description: Pollinators such as wild bees and the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, are important to humans and nature. Seventy-five percent of food crops and 90% of wild flowering plants benefit from animal pollinators (IPBES 2016).
Description: An estimated 73 million sharks were killed last year, primarily for their fins. Their populations are at critical levels, and they are still being fished out of the oceans at unsustainable rates. Some regional populations of shark species are down to 95 - 99%, which is considered functional extinction.
Description: An exploration of the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History collections and their origins. The Dorr Museum of Natural History is unique among museums in that its collections have been prepared entirely by students.
Description: Under the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 's, cheetahs are listed as vulnerable. This status means the species is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction of the species improve. Due to recent studies showing a significant decline in current cheetah numbers, scientists have started calling for the species to be up-listed to endangered status under the IUCN.