Out for Blood
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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 Division of Marketing and Communications • Spring/Summer 2017 UMaineToday 5703 Alumni Hall Orono, ME 04469-5703 Out for blood How do we stem the growing threat Today of ticks in Maine? CREATIVITY AND ACHIEVEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT AND ACHIEVEMENT CREATIVITY UMaine OLLABORATING FOR the common good message is rewarding and empowering. There is real value in working together with shared vision, Cunderstanding that there is strength in num- bers, that leadership takes many forms and that no single person can think of everything. As Maine’s public research university with a President’s statewide mission, we’ve always been in the role of problem solving, helping discover what’s next and communicating evidence-based knowledge to meet needs. UMaine partnerships are forged among scholars and researchers in different disciplines, and with com- munity groups and organizations to benefit the people we serve. And throughout these efforts, students can gain real-world experience and be engaged in public service. Take the multiple UMaine research and outreach efforts to help the state address its growing human and animal health issues related to tick-borne illnesses. UMaine Cooperative Extension has long been on the front lines of tick identification. In the ongoing search for answers, UMaine faculty, staff and students are involved in research in varied fields, and in part- nership with agencies such as the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. And with the help of a 2014 bond approved by Maine voters, the state will soon have a new laboratory administered by UMaine Extension to improve the protection of our human health, food and natural resource-based econ- omy. That forward thinking is key to advancing Maine. We do it with — and for — the people of the state. Susan J. Hunter, Ph.D. President The University of Maine’s Signature Area of Excellence in Marine Sciences includes multidisciplinary research to improve understanding of the physical, biological and socioeconomic processes that shape the ocean. Goals include being a reliable, deeply engaged partner with policymakers, fisheries stakeholders, marine industries and coastal communities. UMaine is dedicated to helping develop solutions for issues associated with Maine’s marine resources while providing high-quality, interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate education, outreach and research for the Gulf of Maine. Photo by Holland Haverkamp Features About UMaine 10 Cold context Leadership Susan J. Hunter, President Contents Since 1968, Paul Mayewski has been conducting 46 10 Karlton Creech, Director of Athletics pioneering research on Earth’s coldest continent. Robert Dana, Vice President for Student Life and His 55-plus worldwide expeditions have contributed to Dean of Students our understanding of atmospheric circulation patterns, Jeffrey Hecker, Executive Vice President for abrupt climate change, alterations in atmospheric Academic Affairs and Provost chemistry and ramifications of climate change. Carol Kim, Vice President for Research and Graduate School Dean Market value James Settele, Chief of Staff 24 Jake Ward, Vice President for Innovation and For Maine food entrepreneurs — from home-based Economic Development business owners to multimillion-dollar enterprise Research centers managers — UMaine Extension safety expert Jason Advanced Manufacturing Center Bolton is a key ingredient in their recipe for success. Advanced Structures and Composites Center He’s a go-to, soup-to-nuts resource. Aquaculture Research Institute Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies 36 Tick check Center for Research on Sustainable Forests Maine is home to 14 tick species, two of which pose Center for Undergraduate Research Center on Aging significant health threats. With the increasing number of Climate Change Institute reported cases of Lyme disease and growing mortality Forest Bioproducts Research Institute rates in moose, UMaine researchers in multiple disciplines Photo by Mariusz Potocki Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center are conducting research on ticks and the diseases they Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology spread in an effort to protect people, animals and the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education environment. Maine Sea Grant Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis 46 The company we keep Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Seminal psychology research at the University of Maine in Solutions the past two decades has contributed to our UMaine Today Magazine understanding of the role and value of children’s peer relationships and, just as important, the difference even Managing editor one friend can make. Margaret Nagle Digital content coordinator 54 Watching for eyes Amanda Lozier When the salmon farming industry in New England was Designers struggling with a decline in egg survival, reproductive Michele Bonin endocrinologist Heather Hamlin stepped in to help. Her Valerie Ireland research has the potential to address a major problem Carol Nichols facing hatcheries. Photographers/videographers 36 54 Holland Haverkamp Adam Küykendall Ronald Lisnet 24 UMaine Today is produced twice a year by the Division of Marketing and Communications, University of Maine, 5703 Alumni Hall, Room 213, Orono, Maine 04469-5703, 207.581.3745. Departments UMaine Today online Printing and distribution of UMaine Today are underwritten by the University of Maine Foundation. Flagship difference Students first On the cover umainetoday.umaine.edu Volume 17 Issue 1 4 Age bands 35 Summers in the lab In 2016, the state had 1,485 probable and UMaine Today magazine online provides web-exclusive features, including videos, photo galleries, ©2017 University of Maine System confirmed cases of Lyme disease, according to the full-length versions of articles and a comprehensive editorial archive. 5 Altered Arctic Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 Hemlock at high risk UMaine engaged but experts note the incidence could be nearly 10 times higher. University of Maine Cooperative The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of 7 Baby breaths 32 A click away Extension’s new Plant, Animal and Insect race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender Video magazine status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, 8 Scaling up Laboratory will expand researchers’ capabilities to disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, screen for blood-borne pathogens, including tick- umainetoday.umaine.edu/videos education, and all other programs and activities. Contact the 9 Flowing voice Insights Director, Equal Opportunity, 101 N. Stevens Hall, Orono, ME borne diseases. 04469 at 207.581.1226 (voice), TTY 711 (Maine Relay System), 58 UMaine news briefs [email protected] with questions or concerns. 2 UMaine Today Spring/Summer 2017 umainetoday.umaine.edu 3 HE KANGERLUSSUAQ region of southwest Age bands Greenland is a 3,728-square-mile corridor difference stretching from the ice sheet to the Labrador ESEARCH PROFESSOR Rick Wahle and T Sea. In this area near the top of the world, graduate student Carl Huntsberger are test- flora and fauna range from microbes in the ice sheet ing a technique at the University of Maine to large herbivores — caribou and musk oxen — R Darling Marine Center to determine the living on the tundra, and aquatic plants and animals Flagship age of lobsters. in the diverse bodies of water, including silt-filled Unlike fish, mollusks and trees, Wahle says lob- rivers, ponds, lakes and mountain streams. sters and other crustaceans molt — or cast off The varied terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in this, their skeletons, thereby discarding exter- the country’s largest ice-free region, receive water, geological nal signs of growth. That means a material, organic carbon and nutrients from the glacier lobster’s age is estimated on size, but surface — an integrated system that has been undergoing it’s a rough determination because substantial change since 2000 due to rapid regional ocean conditions affect the crus- warming. tacean’s growth rate. In a recent article in the journal BioScience, “The Knowing a lobster’s age is important for scientists Arctic in the 21st Century: Changing Biogeochemical and fishery managers seeking to measure the health Linkages Across a Paraglacial Landscape of Greenland,” of the fishery and sustainability of the stock. researchers from seven countries, including a University Recent research by Dr. Raouf Kilada of the Uni- of Maine team led by Jasmine Saros, associate director versity of New Brunswick revealed that lobsters and of the UMaine Climate Change Institute, detail the other crustaceans have internal structures that ecosystems in southwest Greenland and explore how exhibit growth patterns similar to tree rings. Kilada rapidly changing environmental conditions may alter found tree-ring-like microscopic bands, only a frac- this landscape, including the flow of water, carbon tion of a millimeter thick, within a lobster or crab’s and nutrients. N. John Anderson at Loughborough gastric mill — a part of the stomach that grinds University is the lead author. Knowing a lobster’s age is food. The research collaboration, the outgrowth of a Kilada recently visited the Darling Marine Cen- 2015 international workshop in the U.K., highlights important for scientists and fishery ter to share his technique with Wahle and Hunts- the importance of looking