Copepods in warming waters
The copepod Calanus finmarchius is a nutrient- and calorie-rich food source for many species in the Gulf of Maine including herring and right whales, and is the target species of a new research effort. With $1.1 million dollars from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Jeff Rung and colleagues from four institutions will study the physical and biological processes that control the abundance of Calanus of the Northeast coastal ocean. UMaine undergraduate students in the School of Marine Sciences, Josephine Roussell and Madison Leary, are at the DMC this summer working with Runge on the project. They are collecting plankton samples from the deck of the R/V Ira C. and conducting experiments in the flowing seawater laboratory.
Read more about the project at UMaine News