The mystique of Maine’s ecosystem

Studying in Maine has taught me two things about ecology: everything is connected, and the closer you look, the more interesting things get.

Orono Bog

Orono Bog

Let’s take a boggy pond as an example. From afar we see a mucky, murky pond that is difficult to reach and may not have the most appealing odor. But if we look closer we can find plants that eat bugs, beetles that catch fish and bacteria that breathe sulfur instead of oxygen. If we look on the timescale of centuries, we can see a pond slowly being consumed and hidden by vegetation. If we step even farther back, we can use the landscape around the pond to track the glaciers that carved out a place for the pond over 12,000 years ago.

Maine boasts some of the healthiest ecosystems and most passionate scientists in the country. The same forests, lakes and rivers that have fed Mainers for centuries have also fed in-depth research on the natural sciences. I hope to take some of this research and show how it matters to us. I also hope to share with you some scientific gems hidden just out of sight in our great outdoors.

Zachary Wood

Zachary Wood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this blog, I will answer questions like:

How do bogs form?

How are road salts affecting our fish?

How do plants survive above treeline?

I need your help! If you see something interesting or have a question about science in Maine, please get in touch via email <zachary.t.wood@maine.edu> or Twitter <@wacharyzood>.

 

Zachary Wood

About Zachary Wood

I am a hiker and kayaker turned research scientist. I work as a PhD student at the University of Maine in Orono, where I research fish evolution, teach biology and take every excuse I can to escape to the University Forest. I spend the rest of my time roaming the state of Maine, searching for interesting ecology. There is an amazing amount of research that happens in Maine’s outdoors. My goal as a writer is to seek out and find the most exciting natural science that hides just beyond our sight – underwater in our lakes, up high in our trees and swimming through our rivers. I have studied ecology from Costa Rica to Greenland, but I feel most at home living and working in Maine. My work has appeared in news publications, scientific articles, and several science symposia. I need your help! If you see something interesting or have a question about science in Maine, please get in touch via email zachary.t.wood@maine.edu or Twitter @wacharyzood