Campus Events and Media Releases

University of Maine at Farmington Geology Department Awarded Prestigious Quimby Family Foundation Grant for Student Research on Climate Change

FARMINGTON, ME (October 5, 2009)--The University of Maine at Farmington
Department of Geology has been awarded a $20,000 Quimby Family Foundation
grant to study the effects of climate change on high elevation ponds in
Maine. This grant was awarded to Julia Daly, UMF associate professor of
geology, and is one of only two Quimby Family Foundation grants to be
received by a university within the University of Maine System since the
grant's inception.

"I was thrilled when I received the notice from the Quimby Family
Foundation," said Daly. "I knew this was a very competitive year, but I
also knew the significance of this research and the answers that were
possible because of it."

An outgrowth of a smaller-scale pilot study conducted by Daly, the high
elevation pond research project will concentrate on field research
conducted during the summer of 2010. It focuses on the use of student
research to better understand how water temperature variability in ponds
affects pond geology and the sensitive life forms in that enclosed
environment. Data for the study will be gathered at Maine ponds on
Tumbledown Mountain and Bigelow Mountain, with other potential sites on the
Appalachian Trail.

Funds from the grant will provide stipends for three students, purchase new
weather station monitoring equipment and help pay for related research
expenses. The three UMF students chosen for the selective undergraduate
research project will be determined by Daly based on their academic
standing and level of outdoor skills and experience.

These student researchers will be hiking to all of the ponds in the study
and using a small inflatable kayak to deploy data loggers in the waters.
Water temperature readings will then be collected by the students,
analyzed, and used to develop a baseline to determine changes in the ponds
over time.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for UMF students to become engaged in a
real world problem and see what kind of impact climate change is having on
sensitive mountain areas in western Maine," said Daly. She hopes this
initial year will be a springboard to establish this research project in
the future, producing valuable data that will help local and state agencies
preserve this fragile Maine environment.

The Quimby Family Foundation was formed in 2004 by Roxanne Quimby a
businesswoman, environmentalist, and philanthropist. The mission of this
organization is to advance wilderness values and to increase access to the
arts throughout Maine.

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Media Contact: Julia Daly, UMF associate professor of geology, 207-778-7403
or dalyj@maine.edu.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You will find photo at
http://www.umf.maine.edu/campus/docs/RP090-009.JPG

Photo Credit: UMF photo

Photo Caption: Julia Daly, UMF associate professor of geology, and UMF
student Ben Engel discuss variability of surface water temperatures in
Maine's high elevation ponds.