University of Maine
University of Maine is a university that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
Extreme climate pushed thousands of lakes in West Greenland ‘across a tipping point,’ study finds
West Greenland is home to tens of thousands of blue lakes that provide residents drinking water and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Yet after two months of record heat and precipitation in fall 2022, an estimated 7,500 lakes turned brown, began emitting carbon and decreased in water quality, according to a new study. Led by Fulbright […]
Waters along Bar Harbor, Acadia home to billions of microplastics
Along the shores of Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor and the Schoodic Peninsula are the vast, briny waters of Frenchman Bay. With 98 square miles of water and 39 islands, the bay is vital to shorebirds, fish, lobstermen and outdoor recreationists. University of Maine researchers, however, have discovered that Frenchman Bay and its tributaries are […]
Transformation of ocean management is underway, study finds
Marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) is a growing practice of ocean stewardship and conservation that offers benefits to the production of healthy, local food and the preservation of clean water, as well as recreation, habitation and storm protection in the Gulf of Maine and beyond. Despite its benefits and recognition as a keystone practice of ocean […]
Mountain glacier melting is linked to shifting westerlies and likely to accelerate
The combination of global atmospheric warming and westerly winds shifting toward the poles will likely speed up the recession of mountain glaciers in both hemispheres, according to a UMaine study. Mountain glaciers freeze and gain mass when the climate cools, and melt and lose mass when the climate warms. The extent to which the fluctuations […]
Imaging spectroscopy can predict water stress in wild blueberry fields, UMaine-led study reveals
Imaging spectroscopy can help predict water stress in wild blueberry barrens, according to a University of Maine-led study. The technology involves measuring the light reflected off of objects depicted in images captured by drones, satellites and other remote sensing technology to classify and gather pertinent information about the objects. According to researchers, it can precisely […]
Tourism, wind-transported metal pollution threaten drinking water around Everest
Increased local tourism and toxic substances transported to glaciers from distant locales can contribute to high concentrations of human-sourced metal pollution in snow and streams around Mount Everest that is likely degrading the quality of water used by thousands of residents and climbers. Heather Clifford made the discoveries in a study she conducted after taking […]
Understanding the effect of severe rainstorms on freshwater ecosystems
Monitoring concentrations of dissolved organic carbon in Maine lakes before and after severe rainstorms could inform management strategies to help ensure consistent, high-quality drinking water, according to University of Maine researchers. In their study, working with local drinking water districts, Kate Warner and Jasmine Saros, researchers in UMaine’s Climate Change Institute and the School of Biology and […]
Overlooked trends in annual precipitation reveal underestimated risks worldwide
A reanalysis of worldwide annual trends in precipitation demonstrates that risk to human and environmental systems has been underestimated, according to a team of University of Maine researchers. As a result, they found more than 38 percent of the global population and over 44 percent of land area have been experiencing overlooked precipitation trends. Conventional […]