Arsenic in zebras
In one of the first reports of its kind, microbiologists at the
University of Maine have shown that arsenic exposure, at levels deemed
safe in drinking water, suppresses the overall innate immune health in
Zebrafish are used as model organisms for studying immunotoxicity of
The researchers studied the effects of low concentrations of arsenic on
zebrafish resistance to infection. They found that exposure to two
concentrations of arsenic, both of which are considered safe in drinking
water, resulted in zebrafish embryos being more than 50 times more
susceptible to viral and 17 times more prone to bacterial infections.
Exposure to 2 ppb and 10 ppb (parts per billion) arsenic resulted in
slight increases in total arsenic content in the zebrafish. The
increases were enough to bring about dramatic declines in essential
innate immune functions. Exposure to arsenic inhibited the ability of
the fish to clear both viral and bacterial infection from their systems.
Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in soil, air and water that is
generally considered nontoxic. However, it can accumulate in the
environment at toxic levels due to pollution and human activities such
The researchers — graduate student Akshata Nayak, postdoctoral
researcher Christopher Lage and associate professor Carol Kim —
published their findings in the journal Toxicological Sciences.
Canada lynx prefer to hunt in the Maine woods where their
favorite food — snowshoe hare — is relatively accessible, but not
necessarily the most abundant, according to newly published research by
University of Maine wildlife ecologists Angela Fuller and Daniel
Harrison, and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
biologist Jennifer Vashon.
The researchers found that three female and three male lynx snow tracked
for more than 40 miles during two winters preferred woods with 11–26
years of postharvest growth — regenerating clear-cut forests with tall
regrowth (nearly 24 feet tall) and established, partially harvested
Not as much to their liking were regenerating clear-cuts with tree
height less than 14 feet, stands partially harvested in less than a
decade, and mature second-growth forests.
Even though some stands have higher densities of snowshoe hares, lynx
selected tracts that provided intermediate cover for hares. Lynx are
visual foragers that hunt by stalking or ambushing.
In the contiguous United States, Maine has the only population of Canada
lynx east of Minnesota. The study, published in the Journal of Wildlife
Management, sheds light on how the wild cats, designated as federally
threatened, use human-altered habitats in the southeastern portion of
their range. Data on their winter habitat selection and foraging success
in relation to silvicultural treatments is vital to lynx conservation.
Location, Location, Location
Businesses are attracted to locations with high quarterly and
six-month employment stability, according to a study of Maine companies
that began operation in 1999–2000. This suggests that business owners
favor places with a strong year-round economy over areas with seasonal
spikes in economic activity, according to University of Maine economist
Gabe studied nearly 1,600 businesses that began operations in 317 Maine
municipalities. His analysis, which accounted for other location factors
such as taxes, population size and industry clusters, found that annual
fluctuations in local economic activity and employment do not appear to
deter new business activity. But in municipalities with seasonal
employment spikes, there are far fewer businesses opening their doors.
These findings are particularly pertinent in Maine, where strong
seasonal swings are of concern in some parts of the state in the summer
Writing in the journal Land Economics, Gabe noted that
policymakers need to take into account the effects of instability when
evaluating economic development strategies.
Follow the Teacher
When it comes to leaders in our school systems, most people think
only of administrators. But it takes many people to really mobilize a
school for student learning, according to University of Maine education
researcher Gordon Donaldson.
The most important among them are teachers.
"At issue is our understanding of leadership itself," says Donaldson,
writing in the journal Educational Leadership. "Most of us hold the
deep-seated assumption that leaders must have appointments and titles
their leadership and officially confirm their knowledge, traits and
Such a narrow definition underestimates the role of teacher leaders and
the difference they can make in education, Donaldson says. Teacher
leaders are individuals and groups of educators whose professional
relationships and commitments in a school foster instructional
innovation. As leaders, they help build relationships among their peers,
maintain a sense of purpose and improve instructional practice. Teacher
leaders' assets complement principal leadership.
"Whereas principals can shape teachers' beliefs, attitudes and
behaviors, other teachers do shape them," says Donaldson. "Teacher
leaders understand this and are deliberate about shaping their
environment in a positive, responsible way. They draw on their
relationships and their strong sense of purpose to help colleagues
explore, share and improve the practices they use daily with students."
Birds in the postharvest woods
In the longest experimental investigation to date of the effects
of a group-selection timber harvest on forest birds, University of Maine
researchers found that nine of the 22 species abundant enough for
individual analysis in a Maine woods study area responded positively in
the postharvest period.
In particular, the Eastern Wood-Pewee, Winter Wren, Pine Warbler and
White-throated Sparrow increased in abundance in the managed half of the
area following timber harvest, which involved removal of small groups of
mixed-aged trees at short intervals.
Eight other bird species were apparently unaffected. Of the five species
that suggested a negative effect, only one, the Veery, a medium-size
thrush, showed a strong negative response to the timber harvest that
occurred on half of UMaine's 100-acre Holt Research Forest.
The first-cutting cycle of a group-selection timber harvest creates
patches of habitat similar to the small openings caused by natural
disturbance. These patches provide habitat for species that inhabit
early-successional forest growth, yet have little effect on the
abundance of mature closed-canopy bird species.
The 20-year study by UMaine wildlife ecologists Steven Campbell, Jack
Witham and Malcolm Hunter, published in the journal Conservation
Biology, provides important information on the strength, direction and
duration of temporal changes in bird populations following forest
The study is particularly pertinent as managers of woodlands turn to
group-selection harvesting as an alternative to clear-cutting. In
addition, the number of small privately owned forests in the United
States of comparable size to the Holt Research Forest is rising.
South Asian monsoons
An ice core from Mt. Everest shows evidence that the South Asian
monsoon, the largest seasonal reversal of wind patterns and
precipitation on Earth, has weakened in the past 1,000 years in the
northerly, high-elevation regions of monsoon influence, according to
climate change researchers at the University of Maine and the Joint Key
Laboratory of Cryosphere and Environment in China.
However, low-elevation records from south of the Himalayas demonstrate
that the monsoon has strengthened in the past few centuries.
The researchers, who reported their findings in Geophysical Research
Letters, noted that the ice core revealed a decrease in marine and
increase in continental air masses related to relatively high summer
surface pressure over Mongolia, resulting in a reduction in northward
incursions of the summer South Asian monsoon since around 1400 AD.
The north-south regional differences in the Asian monsoon reflect a
southward shift in its mean summer position, say the researchers, led by
Susan Kaspari, a Ph.D. candidate in UMaine's Climate Change Institute.
The change in monsoon circulation at 1400 AD coincides with a reduction
in solar output and the onset of the Little Ice Age.
By the Numbers: New minerals discovered
On a geological expedition along the windswept slopes of the
Larsemann Hills in Antarctica, samples of the area's unique rock
formations collected by University of Maine geologist Edward Grew
revealed three minerals — stornesite-(Y), chopinite and tassieite —
previously unknown to science.
The unique mineralogy of the Larsemann Hills, located on the eastern
shore of Prydz Bay in Princess Elizabeth Land, inspired Grew and his
colleague Chris Carson of Geoscience Australia to make the three-month
expedition in 2003–04.
In UMaine's Department of Earth Sciences, Grew and Martin Yates
identified the minerals using photomicrographs and a powerful electron
microprobe. After determining each sample's optical, chemical and
crystallographic properties, in collaboration with mineralogists in
Germany and Switzerland, Grew submitted the data to a special commission
of the International Mineralogical Association, which formally approved
the three new minerals.
When new minerals are identified, some have little significance while
others end up being tremendously important, says Grew, who has
discovered 10 in his career. "Ultimately, discoveries like these
contribute to our understanding of the origin of rocks, plate tectonics
and other processes, and give us valuable insights into temperature,
pressure and other conditions at different points in the Earth's
history," he says.
This past October, Grew and UMaine Climate Change Institute Director
Paul Mayewski were among 471 scientists named American Association for
the Advancement of Science Fellows. Grew was recognized for
"distinguished research on the role of lithium, beryllium, and boron in
metamorphism at high temperatures and pressures, with emphasis on the
Precambrian of Antarctica." Mayewski was cited for "seminal
contributions to our understanding of climate change through ice and
Arts and sciences
Nineteenth-century oceanographer and navigator Prince Albert I of
Monaco once called art and science "the two directive forces of
Indeed, oceans are replete with literary, artistic and musical allusion
and vice versa, according to University of Maine marine scientist
Malcolm Shick. That's why, for the past three years, his introductory
course on the biology of marine organisms has incorporated an arts and
humanities component in an effort to "put marine biology into its wider
aesthetic and historical context."
In an essay written for the Chamber Music Society of the Maine Center
for the Arts, Shick details his extensive approach to "an aesthetic
marine biology" in the classroom. He uses works of marine biologists who
were also artists, and pieces by artists whose works were based on their
direct, sympathetic experience with ocean life.
They include naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, whose illustrated books
about marine life on the Devonshire Coast helped drive the Victorian
craze for seaside natural history, and marine ecologist T.A. Stephenson;
artists Andrew Wyeth, Henri Matisse and Jackson Pollock; musicians and
composers such as J.S. Bach; and writers from Shakespeare to Steinbeck.
Last February at the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography's
national conference in Santa Fe, N.M., Shick coproduced "Plankton as
an Artistic Inspiration," an art exhibit, lecture and documentary
exploring the influence of the microscopic shapes and forms in art and
design. The exhibition captured the attention of the principal
international science weeklies, Nature and Science.
University of Maine audiologist Amy Booth has spent her career
providing hearing services to underserved populations in this country
and around the globe. In October, she was in China as a member of an
international team of health professionals providing audiology
screenings and hearing aid assessments to one such group — Special
Booth was invited to the Special Olympics World Summer Games in
Shanghai, Oct. 2–10, to provide training and to help implement the
Healthy Hearing segment of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes
With more than 7,000 athletes competing in the Special Olympics World
Summer Games, Booth and her colleagues did nearly 450 hearing screenings
and hearing aid assessments daily. In a day and a half, the team
dispensed 120 hearing aids donated by various hearing aid manufacturers.
Booth has been invited to participate with Healthy Hearing in the World
Winter Games in Idaho in 2009 and the World Summer Games in Greece in