Since September of 2018, I have been conducting research with Dr. Charles Tilburg on the warming of the Gulf of Maine. As many Maine residents and vacationers know, the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than ninety-nine percent of the global ocean (Pershing et al., 2015). My research centers around something that has never been done before, calculating the change in heat content of the Gulf of Maine. Heat content is defined as the thermodynamic energy of seawater (Talley et al., 2011). By calculating the change in heat content, it is possible to determine how much heat is being absorbed into the Gulf of Maine. Once this metric has been calculated, we are one step closer to determining why the Gulf of Maine has a higher warming rate compared to the global ocean. There are many ecological repercussions of global warming, including migration of cold-water marine organisms to northern areas of the Gulf of Maine and beyond and the migration of warm-water marine organisms into the southern portion of the Gulf of Maine. Migration of cold-water species in the region also results in a disruption in the local fishing industry, which can lead to economic repercussions (Sorte et al. 2013; Runge et al. 2014; Poppick 2018). Since the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than the global ocean, it can be used as an indicator for what the rest of the ocean may see as a result of global warming in the future.
Prior to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, I was pursuing research credit in the second semester of my sophomore year at UNE. I was just beginning to calculate the change in heat content in one area of the Gulf of Maine using data from one buoy located in the northern region of the Gulf of Maine. In between weekly meetings with Dr. Tilburg in the Arthur P. Girard Marine Science Center, I was scouring computer programming forums to find and test functions I could use to calculate additional variables needed to calculate the change in heat content. In the weeks preceding the coronavirus outbreak, I was beginning to meet with another student, Morgan Milloy (BS Marine Sciences 2020), who was calculating the volume of the Gulf of Maine for me to use in my calculations. I had started brainstorming my poster for the spring research symposium and was eagerly awaiting the news that I had been accepted to the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program at UNE to continue conducting my research on campus over the summer. Then, on March 13th, 2020, my plans crumbled underneath me. UNE had cancelled in-person classes and I was sent back to my home in New Hampshire. A couple weeks later I would learn that, good news: I had been accepted to the SURE summer program, but, bad news: the program was cancelled. COVID-19 had not only cost me the rest of my spring semester on campus but also my source of income for the summer.
In lieu of this, I was scared about how conducting my research would continue. I quickly found that I am much luckier than those conducting research in a lab, as I didn’t need to meet with anyone in person. I was able to continue conducting my research, switching my meetings with Dr. Tilburg from the Marine Science Center to Zoom. I also began communicating with multiple faculty in the Department of Applied Mathematics to check my methods of data analysis. In terms of my research, nothing had really changed and I was able to complete my research credit that semester. By the time it was May 8th, it was time to decide how I would spend my summer. I had been strict when it came to the stay-at-home order in New Hampshire and was nervous about trying to join the workforce at this time. I decided my best option was to devote my time to conducting research as a volunteer. While I knew I wouldn’t be getting paid through the SURE program, I felt strongly that it would be best for me and my research to continue through the summer.
Dr. Tilburg was incredibly encouraging on my decision and we began meeting twice a week. At this time I had begun learning how to write my own functions to automate the calculation of the change in heat content based on temperature and salinity data from 2004 to 2020. I am currently finalizing my functions and will soon be able to calculate the change in heat content based on data from at least six different buoys at different depths spread throughout the Gulf of Maine. After these calculations have been done, I will one step closer to calculating the heat content of the Gulf of Maine as a whole, and another step closer to my goal of publishing my work by the end of my senior year here at UNE.
I feel incredibly lucky with how minimally the coronavirus outbreak had affected my ability to conduct research. Because my research is all data analysis, it was well-suited to being done entirely online. While I am disappointed I was unable to participate in the spring research symposium and the SURE program, what matters to me is that I was still able to do this important work. In addition to continuing my calculations this summer, I have applied and been selected for a Maine Sea Grant Undergraduate Scholarship in Marine Sciences based on my research. I have also begun to look into other opportunities to share my work with the broader scientific community. While this past semester and this summer are certainly not how I expected to be conducting my research, I am simply glad that I have the opportunity to.
I would like to thank Dr. Charles Tilburg for his continued encouragement and guidance throughout my research.
Figure 1. Consulting with Dr. Tilburg using Zoom from my home in New Hampshire.
References:
Pershing, A.J., Alexander, M.A., Hernandez, C.M., Kerr, L.A., Bris, A.L., Mills, K.E., Nye, J.A., Record, N.R., Scannell, H.A., Scott, J.D., Sherwood, G.D., Thomas, A.C. 2015. Slow adaptation in the face of rapid warming leads to collapse of the Gulf of Maine cod fishery. Science, 350, 809-812. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac9819
Poppick, L. 2018. Why is the Gulf of Maine warming faster than 99% of the ocean?, Eos, 99. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EO109467
Runge JA, Ji R, Thompson CR, Record NR, Chen C, Vandemark DC, Salisbury JE, Maps F. 2014. Persistence of Calanus finmarchicus in the western Gulf of Maine during recent extreme warming. Journal of Plankton Research, 37 221–232. https://doi:10.1093/plankt/fbu098
Sorte CJB, Etter RJ, Spackman R, Boyle EE, Hannigan RE. 2013. Elemental fingerprinting of mussel shells to predict population sources and redistribution potential in the Gulf of Maine. PLoS ONE, 8(11). https://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080868
Talley, L.D., Pickard, G.L., Emery, W.J., Swift, J.H. 2011. Descriptive physical oceanography an introduction. 6th ed. Burlington (MA): Elsevier Inc. Academic Press. Chapter 3, Physical properties of seawater; p. 29-65.