Visiting Investigators at the DMC
Located on the pristine waters of the Damariscotta River Estuary, the Darling Marine Center is a user-friendly field station for marine researchers. Competitive rates and easy access to diverse intertidal habitats and the Gulf of Maine have drawn hundreds of scientists to the DMC in the last decade; many returning year after year. Our professional support staff can provide assistance with specimen collection, equipment use, laboratory setup, and housing.
Marine research has never been easier!
- Research vessels & sampling gear
- AAUS certified dive program
- Flowing seawater laboratories
- Electron microscopy center
- Environmental chambers
- Dissecting, compound & fluorescent microscopes
- Marine library
- Housing for researchers, families & students
Peruse the laboratory and instrumentation section of our website or contact our lab manager at temiller@maine.edu for more information.
The DMC's Visiting Scholars Program is one of our newest programs. We hope to encourage senior scientists to spend all or part of the academic year at the DMC collaborating with UMaine marine faculty and students. It is a great sabbatical opportunity!
Visiting Investigators
Josh Lord and Emily Lyczkowski • Colby College
Josh Lord and Emily Lyczkowski, seniors from Colby College, spent January '08 in residence at the DMC working on their senior thesis. Their subject was the tortoise shell limpet, Acmaea testudinalis, a commonly found mollusc at Maine's rocky intertidal. Despite it's ubiqitous nature on Maine's rocky coast, relatively little is know about the mollusc. Josh and Emily studied limpet movement and substrate preference. They tagged and numbered hundreds of limpets at several sites around Pemaquid Point, and then systematically relocated the limpets and tracked their movements back home.
Rick Wahle • Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science
For the past 15 summers, Dr. Rick Wahle of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has used the DMC as a base of operation for his underwater research on lobster ecology sine 1992. Rick and his team work side-by-side with lobstermen on projects geared toward augmenting and understanding the lobster fishery. Most recently they have been working with the Zone C Lobster Hatchery in Stonington to determine the perfect age at which to release lobster larvae to ensure survival and retention to the fishery. Details on this project can be found at www.penoscoteast.org.
Another project aims to provide settlement data that will improve lobster production models used by fishery managers. Rick developed a “passive post larval settlement trap” to supply settlement data for deep, offshore waters. The traps that can be set on the sea floor and hauled-up by lobster boats. In October 2008,the traps were hauled, the contents surveyed and for the first time ever, lobster settlement has been documented at depths greater than 60’.
Geoff Trussell, Northeastern University &
Pat Ewanchuk, Providence College
Dr. Geoff Trussell and Dr. Pat Ewanchuk are evolutionary and community ecologists. Their association with the DMC goes back to their graduate and post-graduate days, in the late 1990's, when they began a series of long-term experiments looking at the biotic and abiotic factors that influence zonation in rocky intertidal habitats. Today Geoff and Pat and their team of graduate students continue to look at life-history patterns, preditor-prey interactions, and settlement success in the intertidal to determine the role of crabs, snails, barnacles and macroaglea in the intertidal community. one of their projects is a collaborative effort with Dr. Lee Smee, TA&MU-CC, another returning Visiting Investigator.
Lee Smee, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi
Dr. Lee Smee brings together his interests in ecology, animal behavior and chemical signaling in his most recent research project. While at the DMC Lee will be conducting parallel lab and field experiments to determine how physical factors influence preditor-prey (green crab-dog winkle-barnacle) interaction and ultimately community structure. Lee is collaborating on this project with Geoff Trussell, Northeastern University and Pat Ewanchuk, Providence College, who are also Visiting Investigators at the DMC.
Joe Thompson • Franklin and Marshal College
Dr. Joseph Thompson, is a member of the biology Department at Franklin and Marshal College in Lancaster, PA. He spent first summer at the DMC in 2005 and has returned every summer since. Joe’s research focuses on the ontogeny of jet locomotion in squid.
Though little squid look like big squid, they are very different at the cellular level. Their muscles and connective tissues change significantly during growth. The result of these changes can be seen in the ability and efficiency of the squid’s jet locomotion.
To learn more about these changes, Joe and his team of two undergraduate interns and one graduate student used high speed digital video to investigate the kinematics of escape jet locomotion and digital particle image velocimetry to directly measure the propulsion efficiency of jetting. This data combined with histological studies show how and why squid locomotion changes with age and development.
Christine Lipsky • NOAA Fisheries
In 2000, Atlantic salmon populations in eight Maine rivers were put on the endangered species list. Since then, federal and state research teams have been studying freshwater nursery grounds for each river, and quantifying the landward and seaward migrations of the salmon to determine the weakest link in the salmon's life cycle.
Christine Lipsky is a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) studying salmon smolts in the Sheepscot River. Each spring Christine and her team capture, count and release the young anadromous fish on their maiden voyage to the sea. By tracking the number of smolts as well as their size and other health factors, the researchers can estimate the overall health and size of the smolt population in the Sheepscot River. The strength of the smolt population reflects the productivity of the freshwater nursery grounds.
Michael Horst • Mercer University School of Medicine
Dr. Mike Horst has been conducting research and teaching summer workshops at the DMC since the late 1990's. Mike is interested in shell formation in the American lobster, Homarus americanus, and other related crustaceans. For the last six years, he has studied the effects of a pesticide used for mosquito control on both post-molt and intermolt lobsters. Since this pesticide mimics a natural hormone found in lobsters, it act as an endocrine disruptor, altering normal metabolic events such as shell formation, digestion and stress response. As part of a team of scientists studying the 1999 lobster die-off in Long Island Sound, he discovered that the pesticide methoprene alters protein synthesis in both the shell and in the digestive gland of the lobster. Their most recent work has identified a series of genes in the lobster hepatopancreas (digestive gland) that are either activated or inhibited by short term exposure to methoprene; we are presently conducting bio-assays to confirm the results of our gene expression studies. Based on these studies, our future work will focus on development of sensitive tests to measure stress in native and captive lobster populations with the goal of helping increase the productivity of this important industry.
As part of this ongoing study, I have worked at the Darling Marine Center for the last four years, conducting my studies on all life stages of the lobster in one of the FSL visiting scientist labs. My work has been enriched by interactions with other DMC faculty, staff and visiting scientists. The laboratory conditions are ideal for the biochemical and electron microscopic studies that I am pursuing, and I am grateful for the courtesies extended to me while at the DMC each summer.
~ Dr. Michael Horst
UMaine and Maine's Oyster Industry Collaborative
The waters of the Damariscotta River estuary have long been known for delicious cultured shellfish, especially oysters. Beginning in 1986, UMaine researchers and Damariscotta River oyster growers worked together to develop a fast-growing strain of oyster. The resulting strain grew 40% faster than the wild oyster stocks of the Damariscotta River.
In a renewed effort to improve cold water growth performance and disease resistance of the Damariscotta River oysters, the Oyster Brood Stock Program was launched in 2003. This collaborative study involves UMaine School of Marine Sciences researcher Dr. Paul Rawson, DMC Hatchery Manager Scott Feindel, and aquaculturalists from Freeport to Cutler, Maine.
They are comparing the high-performance oysters developed at the DMC since 1986 with selectively bred stocks of oysters from New York and New Jersey to improve cold water growth performance and possibly disease resistance, too. Hybrid crosses will also be tested. The results of this trial will be used to design a long-term selective breeding protocol for improved yield throughout the coastal waters of Maine.
Support for the cooperative Oyster Brood Stock Program project comes from Maine Technology Institute, the Maine Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station, and donations form the oyster growing industry.
Carol Janzen & Kjell Gunderssen • Universtiy of Maine
Physical, chemical and biological oceanographers rely on hi-tech sensors to record the ocean parameters. To ensure researchers have the most technologically advanced and the most reliable equipment NOAA has established the Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT).
Working with agency partners across the country, including the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS), ACT provides unbiased third party tests of new technologies. Dr. Carol Janzen, Assistant Research Professor at the UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences is the GoMOOS ACT Technical Coordinator. This summer she conducted in situ evaluations of dissolved oxygen sensors from four manufacturers at the DMC pier.
Dr. Carol Janzen and Research Associate Dr. Kjell Gundersen reviewed dissolved oxygen sensors from Aanderaa, In-Situ Inc., Greenspan Analytical, and YSI Environmental. The sensors were deployed for 29 days and were evaluated for accuracy, bias, precision, and reliability. Controlled laboratory and field test were conducted to evaluate the performance of the sensors under a variety of known and unknown environmental conditions.
The DMC experiments were successful with 100% data recovery from the sensors. A second round of test are currently being conducted at partner institutions. Final results will made available on the ACT website (www.act-US.info) in January 2005.
Dr. Jonathan Grabowski and Dr. Erika Clesceri
Herring is the primary lobster bait used in Maine. Each year, lobstermen bait their traps with thousands of pounds of Atlantic herring. The bait presumably offers a convenient food source for small lobsters that easily come and go from the traps. In addition, as traps are pulled and rebaited, the discarded bait becomes available for a host of benthic animals including lobsters. Is this ready supply of food the means by which the lobster population remains strong despite ever increasing landings? Are we farming, as opposed to fishing for lobster?
Working in conjunction with scientists from the Darling Marine Center, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the Gulf of Maine Aquarium, and lobster fishermen from up and down the coast, Dr. Jonathan Grabowski and Dr. Erika Clesceri are conducting extensive field research and controlled experiments in the DMC flowing seawater laboratory to determine if we are farming lobster in Maine waters.
Currently the research is focusing on the fate of discarded herring on the benthic community and the relative contribution of herring to the lobster diet. They have also been comparing lobster growth and population characteristics (i.e. size frequencies) in areas with and without added herring from fishing. Funding for this project comes from the Northeast Consortium.
Sally Woodin, Rachel Merz & Flo Thomas
Drs. Sally Woodin, University of South Carolina; Flo Thomas, University of South Florida, Tampa; and Rachel Merz, Swarthmore College visited the DMC in the summer of 2000 to learn more about the biology and ecology of bamboo worms. The researchers are particularly interested in the role the worm's setae play in tube building and how they function to maintain water flow through the tube.
Doug Morse
Dr. Douglas Morse, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Brown University and teams of graduate and undergraduate students have been studying spider ecology in the DMC fields since 1993. For the last six years, their research has focused on the crab spider, Misumena vatia. Morse and his team have studied a variety of biological and ecological issues dealing with the spider's sexual dimorphism, hunting site selection (Misumena don't build webs, they are sit and wait predators) and sexual selection.
Carl Grobe & Ian Davison
In 2000-2001, Dr. Ian Davison of the University of Maine and Dr. Carl Grobe of Westfield State College, Westfield, MA, collaborated on a study designed to measure the effect of ultraviolet radiation on the growth and physiological health of red and brown seaweeds. They are interested in the effects of UV and the interactions of UV and nitrogen nutrition on the growth, photosynthesis, and physiology of these seaweeds.
