20. Gulf of Maine Research

Tom Robben (part 1) for COA and (part 2) for Michelle Staudinger, from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, et al 

This topic is discussed at 5 hours 36 minutes of the video recording:  COA's Birds and the Environment Science Conference - Online - YouTube

This is a working draft, under construction.

PART 1:

The COA Research Committee focused a lot of attention on Stellwagen Bank and the Gulf Of Maine between 2014 and 2019, including many two-day cruises from Portland, Maine to Yarmouth, Canada and back to Portland. We were trying to document the birds and marine mammals along that 420-mile round trip route, also known as the GNATS Transect (Gulf of maine North Atlantic Time Series), since it started being studied in 1912 by the famous marine biologist Henry Bigelow, and in recent years by Barney Balch and his team from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, in Maine.   We were trying to find all the birds along this route, and compare them against birds seen there in previous decades. 

Here are two of the multiple teams which did those GOM crossings with us...

Kevin, Frank, Tom, Eric, Les and Dave...

During these years we got more involved with several research efforts in the GOM and joined a RARGOM derived team led by Michelle Staudinger and worked on that project, and its resulting paper (see Part 2 below)... 

PART 2:

"It's about time: A synthesis of changing phenology in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem."

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fog.12429

This topic is discussed at 5 hours 36 minutes of the video recording:  COA's Birds and the Environment Science Conference - Online - YouTube

This is a working draft, under construction. 

“It’s about time: A synthesis of changing phenology in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem” by Michelle Staudinger, et al. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fog.12429

“This comprehensive review summarizes the state of the science of shifting phenology in the GoM region and identifies information gaps related to taxonomic groups of high conservation and management concern. Our findings demonstrate a clear need for increased emphasis on phenological research in the region and should serve as a catalyst for future investigations. We have highlighted a number of case studies where actions can be taken to reduce uncertainty and guide adaptation efforts to avoid disruption of the ecosystem services in a rapidly changing ocean.”

This is a great example of scientists studying the phenological changes across an entire wide complex ecosystem, the Gulf of Maine, and finding that less is known than we expected.  Birds are just one part of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. All the GOM bird species in this study, are also seen in Connecticut waters in Long Island Sound, although some very irregularly.    

To learn more about this, please follow the internet links above.