The Wrack

Research Director Dr. Michele Dionne has scheduled an intense summer of field work for staff plus interns and volunteers. These are most of the projects under way this season:

1. Ecosystem Services from Streamside Habitats—Sample stream invertebrates, algae, water quality, fish, and fish habitat in a NERRS Science Collaborative project focused on measuring the value of streamside vegetation in the Merriland River/Branch Brook/Little River watershed
2. National Wetland Condition Assessment—Travel statewide to sample soil and water at preselected sites for the first-ever national survey of wetland quality
3. Emergent Vegetation Biomonitoring—Install a Surface Elevation Table benchmark and survey vegetation in the Webhannet and Little River estuaries as part of the System-wide Monitoring Program
4. Kennebunk and Mousam Rivers—Fish for migratory species and compile an ecohistory in partnership with Maine Rivers (Project page)
5. Shoreys Brook Restoration—Complete pre-restoration fish surveys before planned dam removal and culvert replacement on this Eliot tributary
6. Saco River Indicators—Sample migratory fish and fish larvae, and collect water and plant tissue samples, to support Saco River project
7. Habitat-Species Interactions—Investigate the relationships among invasive crabs, invasive and native snails, native fish, and salt marsh plants
8. Mercury in Estuarine Food Webs—Study how mercury moves through the estuarine food web in different salt marsh habitats (pools, creeks, and channels)
9. Wading Bird Survey—Continue annual monitoring of heron and egret distribution and abundance on the Webhannet and Little River estuaries as indicators of salt marsh productivity

We'll have pages dedicated to each of these projects up over the next few weeks.